The government of Odisha has decided to enhance the penalty for violators of the COVID-19 protocols. The State Cabinet, in its meeting held yesterday, has approved the proposal to effect necessary amendments in the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, in its application to the state of Odisha, by promulgating an Ordinance.

According to the proposal, non-compliance with the norms for the use of masks, social distancing, spitting at public places and other such regulatory measures would attract imprisonment for a term which may extend upto two years or a fine which may extend upto 1 lakh rupees or both.

In Odisha, the number of Covid-19 positive cases has crossed 50000 marks. With 1876 positive cases on a single day yesterday, the total number of COVID -19 affected people in the state has reached 50,672. Out of them, 34805 people have recovered while 15509 people are under treatment. The state has ramped up testing which now has crossed 724000 samples. Meanwhile, to maximize the pandemic awareness especially among the youth, the state govt has launched a mobile app COVIDSANGRAMEE20-20 CHALLENGE on the International Youth Day yesterday.

Odisha which was able to put the lid on the rapid expansion of the novel coronavirus in the initial phases of the pandemic has of late been witnessing a daily surge of Covid-19 patients. On an average, the daily case count in the state has been over 1,500 during the last few days. While all the 30 districts of the states have reported COVID-19 positive cases during the last 24 hours, the district of Khordha which houses the capital city of Bhubaneswar has seen the highest inter-district positive cases at 297. The state which reported the first COVID positive case on 15th March this year is now witnessing a positivity rate of about 7 per cent, the recovery rate of more than 68 % and death rate of about 0.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, India conducted the highest ever single-day COVID tests at over 7,33000 in the last 24 hours. This has taken the cumulative tests to more than 2,60,00000. Union Health Ministry said, the country's Test, Track and Treat strategy has achieved another peak with 18852 tests per million.

The graded and evolving response has resulted in a testing strategy that steadily widened the testing net in the country. The testing lab network in the country is continuously strengthened with 1421 labs in the country, 944 labs in the government sector and 477 private labs.

The country also reported the highest ever single-day COVID-19 recoveries of over 56000 patients in the last 24 hours. The Health Ministry said that 16,39 599 people have recovered till date. The Recovery rate has reached another high of 70.38 per cent.

The actual case load of the country is over 6,43000, which is only 27.64 per cent of the total positive cases. It said, a single day spike of 60963 COVID-19 cases has taken the virus caseload to over 2329000. In the last 24 hours, 834 deaths pushed the death toll to 460091.