Odisha has achieved the distinction of holding more than 50,000 Covid-19 tests per day in its effort to contain the corona pandemic in the state.

Last month, it had managed to conduct around 9,000-12,000 tests per day.

Praising the efforts of doctors, the chief minister’s office on Sunday tweeted: “Odisha has today crossed a major milestone in its fight against Covid-19- the 50,000 tests/day mark. Commend the relentless efforts of health professionals and Covid warriors who dedicated themselves towards the goals of ‘test, trace, track’ to help save lives.”

Odisha conducted a record of 52,795 tests during the past 24-hours. While 10,240 tests were done through RT-PCR, 42,414 antigen and 142 tests were done through TrueNat method. The capital city Bhubaneswar has so far reported 5,289 corona cases.

So far, Odisha has registered 60,050 corona positive cases with reports of 2,924 new cases coming in the past 24 hours.

“We have so far conducted 9,08,508 tests after Covid-19 hit the state. The number of recoveries in the state is rapidly rising and has crossed 40,000 with recovery of 1,521 more persons in the past 24 hours. The total number of recoveries stands at 40,726. The government is also actively promoting plasma therapy in the state,” said a senior official of the state health department.

State’s premier hospital and medical college SCB Medical College, Cuttack on Saturday (August 15) achieved another milestone by collecting more than 200 units of plasma from 105 cured Covid patients. The plasma bank in SCB was inaugurated by the chief minister on July 15.

“Special thanks to the plasma collecting team for ensuring that people of Odisha have access to best treatment against the pandemic,” Naveen tweeted.

However, Covid warriors continue to fall victim to the disease while fighting it. A doctor from Ganjam district on Sunday passed away while undergoing treatment at the Covid hospital. He has been identified as Dr B. Krishna and was working as superintendent of a community health centre in Purushottampur block of Ganjam district. He had been diagnosed with COVID 19 on August 4 and admitted to the Covid hospital the next day. Earlier on August 14, a doctor working in Sambalpur district had succumbed to COVID 19. The number of deaths from corona virus in the state mounted to 343 with 10 more casualties reported from different parts of the state during the past 24 hours.