Bhubaneswar: Amidst a massive spike in Covid cases in the state, the Health department will begin administering the precautionary third dose of Covid vaccine for senior citizens with co-morbidity, health workers and other frontline workers in the capital city and Cuttack from Monday.
The booking for the booster dose was opened on CoWIN app Saturday night and individuals who want to take the third dose need to produce the certificate of second jab at the vaccination centre.
Meanwhile, the state registered 4,714 new Covid cases Sunday, 28 per cent more than the previous day, and the biggest single-day spike in nearly six months, the Health department said. The daily positivity rate jumped to 6.72 per cent from 5.15 Saturday.
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As many as 416 children are among the newly-infected patients, a bulletin said. The spike is more than 11-fold from 424 cases reported January 2. The state had logged 3,679 cases Saturday, while 4,852 infections were registered June 12 last year.
Khurda district, where Bhubaneswar is located, reported more than a quarter of the new cases as 1,619 people tested positive. Sundargarh reported 662 new cases, while Sambalpur (437), Cuttack (360) and Puri (119) followed.
The active cases rose to 16,117, including 5,671 in Khurda, which is in the red zone. Sundargarh, Sambalpur and Cuttack are in the yellow zone where the number of patients is between 1,001 and 2,500, the bulletin said.
Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Sunday, added 19 more zones in the capital.
PNN