Bhubaneswar: Odisha Wednesday reported 542 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since August last year, pushing the tally to 13,43,202, a health department official said.
One more death due to the virus took the toll to 9,209, the official said.
The surge in new cases is considered as significant as it breached the 500 mark in a single day. Of the total of 7,571 samples tested in the state, 542 tested positive taking the test positivity rate to 7.1 per cent.
The state now has 3,270 active COVID-19 cases, according to data shared by the state health department.
Odisha had reported 393 and 392 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and Monday respectively. With fresh recovery of 257 patients, the total number of people getting cured rose to 13,30,488, the health official said.
The state has recorded about 3,000 new cases in the last one week while four people have so far died of the infection this year.
With rising cases, the Odisha government has made mask wearing mandatory in all health institutions.
Meanwhile, the state government has urged the people to abide by the COVID-19 protocol of wearing masks, maintaining social distancing while going outside and in crowded places in order to avoid further spread of the virus.
The government also suggested that people who have flu like symptoms to go for tests and isolate them from others.
PTI