According to official reports, Odisha has achieved the milestone of conducting one lakh COVID-19 tests. As of Monday midnight, the state had already conducted 1,00,302 tests across nine laboratories. With this, Odisha now ranks eighth in the country in terms of testing capacity.
Other states in the top-10 list include Tamil Nadu with 3,37,841 tests, followed by Maharashtra at 2,82,437, and Rajasthan with 2,43,476 tests.
“Initially the tests were being conducted in one laboratory at the RMRC, Bhubaneswar. With the installation of modern testing labs and machines in various institutions, the testing capacity is being augmented,” said PK Mohapatra, Additional Chief Secretary, Health Department.
Meanwhile, even as migrants return from all over the country, a positivity rate of 0.98 percent has been recorded in the state, much below the national average of four percent. Most of the positive cases are returnees from West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh among others.
The fatality rate has also been low in Odisha – at 0.5 percent against the national average of 3.3 percent.
As the nation enters the fourth phase of the lockdown, it is expected that infections would peak in the next couple of weeks. Thus, there might be a sharp rise in the number of cases followed by the beginning of a downward trend.