Bhubaneswar: In the wake of a surge in COVID-19 cases in the Capital city, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Thursday, clarified that the rise in cases is due to increased testing and resumption of economic activities in the city.
Bhubaneswar, Thursday, reported 319 new cases taking the city’s tally to 6,396. This also marked the second day in a row where the city reported more than 300 cases with Monday witnessing as many as 370 cases. In fact, the average cases recorded in the city during last seven days was 257 which was only 153 previous week.
“The surge in cases has largely been due to increased testing. While a week ago we had about 1,500 tests daily it has been increased to about 2,500 to 3,000. Moreover, with re-opening of commercial activities under Unlock 3.0 the numbers have surged as the city faces a large number of floating population,” said BMC Commissioner, Prem Chandra Chaudhary.
Apart from surge in positive cases, the city has witnessed rise in deaths too. While until August 7 the death toll in Capital city remained 18, it went up to 31 Thursday – a 72 per cent increase. Moreover, the recovery rate in past 14 days remained the same at 39 per cent. While 2,151 had recovered out of 3,472 cases until August 6, 3,953 recovered out of 6,396 cases, Thursday.
Requesting people not to panic, Chaudhary said, “We are well prepared when it comes to requirement of resources fighting against the surge in cases. We have different kinds of beds as per the condition of the patient. Moreover, a large number of cases have been from home quarantine with no serious symptoms. We are also promoting quarantine bed setup in local communities.”
As per the latest information, the BMC under its jurisdiction presently has a bed capacity of 3,461. Meanwhile, it has 115 ventilators and 218 ICU beds. While the city has three dedicated COVID hospitals for serious cases it has three COVID Care Centres and three COVID Care Homes with total capacity of 920 and 600 beds respectively.