Bhubaneswar: The state Capital has recorded as many as 553 dengue cases within the last 10 days, which is stated to be the highest jump in new cases since the outbreak.
The City is also observing an alarming rise in dengue cases as the caseload goes beyond the 1500-mark, with 82 new cases detected Thursday.
As per sources from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Thursday’s was the highest single-day spike. With this, the tally of dengue cases reached 1,552, the highest ever recorded in the last five years.
While cases have been coming in since January from around the City, the last 10 days have observed the sharpest rise.
The City reported its first case of dengue this year earlier in January. While only three cases were reported in the entire month, two were observed in February. This was followed by three in March and two in April. While no cases were detected in May, only two popped up in June.
However, massive spike in cases was observed in July with the detection of 551 cases. While only 10-20 cases used to be reported earlier, the numbers increased to 30-40 everyday. Meanwhile, the last ten days have already observed 543 new cases.
“Cases recorded are cumulative, and active cases are less in number. Out of the total cases, 1,060 have recovered and others are under observation. We are continuously carrying out sanitation and awareness drives around the affected areas. The daily caseload will soon see a drop,” said a BMC official.
While most of these cases have been reported from slums of Chandrasekharpur, Niladri Vihar and Sailshree Vihar, residents have blamed the civic body’s indifference for rise in cases. “The city observes dengue cases every year but garbage collection is not done on a regular basis. Issues like water logging are not taken care of,” complained Bijay Behera, an activist here.
Meanwhile, the BMC official also added that until now, special teams deployed in affected areas have visited 21,572 households covering around 92,000 people. During their visits, the teams have destroyed 54,154 breeding sources having 55,464 larva of Aedes Aegypti (vector carrier of Dengue).