Odisha's COVID-19 caseload crossed the 70,000-mark on Thursday as 2,898 more people tested positive for the infection, while eight fresh fatalities took the state's coronavirus death toll to 380, a health official said.
The fresh infections reported from all the 30 districts have taken the state's COVID-19 tally to 70,020, he said.
The state also reported the recovery of 1,641 patients taking the total number of people who have been cured of the disease to 48,577, which is 69.37 per cent of the total caseload.
Khurda district, of which Bhubaneswar is a part, registered its highest single-day spike of 524 new cases, followed by Cuttack (241), Nayagarh (232) and Ganjam (226).
The remaining districts reported less than 200 fresh infections each, the official said.
Ganjam, Odisha's COVID-19 hotspot, reported four fresh fatalities while Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Khurda and Puri districts registered one death each, the official said.
Ganjam accounted for 166 of the state's 380 COVID-19 deaths, followed by 52 in Khurda, he said.
Fifty-three COVID-19 patients have died due to other ailments in the state so far, the official said.
A ruling BJD MLA from Bhubaneswar was among the fresh cases. With this, the number of lawmakers getting infected with the virus increased to eight - seven MLAs and an MP - in Odisha.
The state now has 21,010 active cases which is 30 per cent of the state's total caseload of 70,020.
Odisha has so far tested 11,15,947 samples for COVID19, including 53,478 on Wednesday, the official added.
The state government in a statement said that Odisha is leading in the country in terms of COVID-19 testing.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also placed Odisha among the top six states so far as the positivity rate is concerned.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through a video conference reviewed the COVID-19 situation of Kendrapara district and expressed satisfaction over the manner in which the pandemic is being managed there.
He announced that the government will provide one ambulance with a ventilator to each block of the district.
"Kendrapara has become a model district in managing Covid difficulties in spite of the return of around 55,000 migrants," the chief minister said.
However, the surge of COVID-19 cases in Khurda district has emerged as a major cause of concern with its caseload mounting to 10,370.
The district has as many as 4,313 active cases and it also reported 52 deaths so far.
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