Bhubaneswar: With festive season and winter round the corner, people of Odisha need to be extra cautious against any probable spread of COVID-19 infection in the days ahead, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) director Ajay Parida said Friday.
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Even though the state has witnessed a five per cent decline in new COVID-19 positive cases in last 15 days, people should not be complacent, he added.
“Odisha used to report 4,000 plus new COVID-19 cases mostly between September 10 and 25. The daily caseload has now come down considerably. The state reported the lowest spike of 2,138 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours,” Parida said.
Dismissing suggestions that the drop in daily caseload was due to low testing, Parida said that the cumulative daily testing of 45,000 persons has come down to nearly 40,000 owing to rains last week.
Parida cautioned people of the state not to lower their guards against the deadly virus, especially during festive season and winter.
“Coronavirus will stay like any other disease. People need not be complacent and should strictly abide by the COVID-19 guidelines. It is very likely that infections will go up as there will be a rise in cases of cold, cough and fever during winter,” Parida warned.
PNN