Bhubaneswar: With Odisha registering above 10,000 Covid-19 cases on a daily basis there is a strong possibility that the lockdown may be extended after May 19, experts said Thursday.
The total number of active cases in Odisha went past the one lakh-mark Thursday morning for a brief while. Out of 30 districts in Odisha, the test positivity rate (TPR) has remained over 10 per cent in 29 for the last seven days (May 6 to 12).
Kalahandi district has reported the highest TPR at 46 per cent. Other districts that have a TPR of more than 30 per cent are Sambalpur (38.4%), Khurda (36.7%), Angul (34.1%), Bargarh (31.3%), Boudh (31.2%) and Sundargarh (30.8%).
Director of Capital Hospital Laxmidhar Sahu said that if the Covid-19 graph doesn’t show a downward trend, the government will be forced to extend lockdown.
Similarly, another senior doctor and former public health director JK Tripathy opined that the government should continue with the lockdown as the infection rate continues to remain high.
“The daily infection rate continues to remain above 10,000, so the government should not relax restrictions. Otherwise the rate will increase,” asserted Tripathy.
PNN
