<span style="color: #222222;">In Odisha, COVID-19 active caseload dipped below 10 thousand yesterday. It was for the first time in several months that the active caseload of the state had gone down to 9827. The state reported the recovery of 1271 persons yesterday taking the cumulative total to 296516 as against a total of 307906 infections so far.<br />''<br />''COVID-19 positivity rate in Odisha has dropped to 5.9 per cent indicating fewer number of fresh infections. This is so despite no let up in the number of sample tests . The state has been conducting covid-19 tests in the range of 40 to 50 thousand per day with about 48 thousand tests having been conducted yesterday alone. The case fatality rate too has slumped to 0.49%, though in absolute numbers covid 19 fatalities of the state have crossed 1500 yesterday. Meanwhile the heightened covid-19 awareness of the people in general coupled with the ban on firecrackers led the state to celebrate Diwali as a festival of light in the true sense of the term sans any booming sound and blinding fireworks.</span><br />