BHUBANESWAR: Amid falling cases, the state government is planning to unlock districts with low positivity rate even as it keeps one eye on a possible third wave.
“Unlocking districts where positivity rate is declining in a phased manner is under active consideration of the state government,” a government statement quoted chief minister Naveen Patnaik as saying following a meeting on the Covid situation on Tuesday.
The government had announced that the ongoing lockdown would continue till June 17.
Sources said there may soon be some relaxation in districts with positivity less than 5% while ruling out extension of lockdown.
The number of active cases have drastically fallen in western and southern districts.
Northern (Mayurbhanj and Balasore) and coastal (Khurda, Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur) districts are still showing a rising trend.
In the past one week (June 1 to 7), five districts of Ganjam, Sonepur, Kandhamal, Gajapati and Balangir reported test positivity rate of less than 5%.
Eight other districts of Koraput, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Deogarh, Keonjhar, Kalahandi, Bargarh and Sambalpur had positivity between five to 10%.
Daily positivity in 12 districts of Sundargarh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Nuapada, Balangir, Sonepur, Sambalpur, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Gajapati and Ganjam was less than four per cent with Ganjam reporting the lowest at 1.82%.
A state government projection said with the current trend and a decline rate of 4.5%, daily positive cases will fall to 2,955 by June 21, which was 5,896 on Tuesday.
Total active cases will reduce to 36,815 by then from the current 66,172.
Odisha mulls phased unlock amid steady drop in cases
