By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 10, 2020: Odisha on Friday recorded its highest single-day surge of 755 Covid-19 cases taking the total infections to 11, 956 cases and the death toll in the state rose to 56 after four more people.

Of the 755 cases, Ganjam district, which had floods of migrant workers alone contributed 42 per cent of the total load.

The record surge pushed the daily growth rate to 6.74 percent and sample positivity rate to 11.69 per cent, both higher than national rate, straining the government’s available resources to fight the pandemic.

However, Odisha also saw the biggest ever recoveries in a single day as 565 Covid patients were discharged from hospitals.

succumbed to coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours. All four deaths were reported from Ganjam district. In addition, two more Covid patients died due to other health issues.

With cases rising significantly, the state government has now decided to set up six more Covid Hospitals in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and add over 2,000 beds. The state has over 5,500 beds in Covid hospitals and another 21,000 beds at Covid care centres for patients with mild symptoms.

The state will also ramp up rapid antigen tests to 2,000 tests per day in a fortnight. Director of Institute of Life Sciences Dr Ajay Parida said Odisha will conduct 6,000 RT-PCR tests a day to detect COVID. He said 30,000 antigen test kits have arrived in the state and orders for one lakh more kits will be placed soon.