During contact tracing, it has come to light that as many as 112 persons came in contact with the third COVID-19 positive patient in the State before he was tested positive for the virus, informed State Government’s COVID-19 Chief Spokesperson Subroto Bagchi on Saturday.

Bagchi said of 112 contacts, 15 have not been traced so far. Samples of 11 persons were sent for tests. Out of these, one person was found to be negative for COVID-19 while reports of 10 remaining persons are yet to be received, Bagchi said.

Other sources said four postgraduate students of the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack have been asked to remain in isolation due to their contact history with the State’s third positive patient. Four medicos were passengers of the same IndiGo flight by which the patient returned to Bhubaneswar from Delhi on March 10. This was revealed after details about the patient’s seat allotment in the flight came to the fore during a contact tracing exercise. Later, the four medical students registered their names by dialling 104 Helpline.

The sources said that among the four medicos, two have complained of cold and cough and the other two are stated to be in good conditions. They had returned to Bhubaneswar on March 10 after attending a conference held in Dehradun and were sitting behind the patient.

Reports said the four medical students had been on duty at the hospital after their return to the State. Even, they had assisted doctors in several surgeries. Bagchi at his Press meet informed that till Saturday noon, 256 samples from the State were sent for tests. Of them, three were found to be positive. Conditions of the two earlier positive cases are stable while the third positive case is showing improvement in his condition, he said. A total of 56 suspects have been kept in isolation at different hospitals in the State. A total of 7,080 persons have registered themselves through the COVID-19 portal and Helpline-104, he said.

Bagchi also said 4,286 returnees from overseas have registered online and 104 Helpline whereas 2,794 returnees from other States have registered themselves too. Cattle and poultry feeds have been included as essential items and shops selling them are exempted from the lockdown restrictions. Also, grocery stores are allowed to sell cattle and poultry feeds, Bagchi added.