A 65-year-old returnee from Gulf has tested positive for COVID-19 in Mahe. The person, from Palloor in Mahe, had arrived on the second repatriation flight from Dubai, at the Kannur International Airport on Sunday and got himself admitted at the government hospital in Mahe. A throat swab was taken on Monday and its results returned positive on Tuesday.
One patient in Karaikal was discharged after results returned negative in two successive tests.
The number of active cases in the U.T. now stands at 14 -- six in IGMCRI, two in Mahe, one in Karaikal and five from Tamil Nadu in JIPMER.
Health officials said that while one patient at the IGMCRI tested positive in a repeat test, three others were due for their first test, after remaining under hospital quarantine, on Wednesday, and a second one the following day. The two remaining patients will be tested on May 21 and 22.
Tests have been conducted on eleven persons who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi and were allowed to return to the city on Monday. In addition to four returnees from Abu Dhabi, a group of seven students from Hyderabad had returned to the city. Their test results are also awaited.
The returnees have been accommodated at the ESI Hospital and they will be allowed to return home after results are obtained.
Higher allocation
Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao has sought higher budgetary allocation for health. He pointed out that some States had stepped up allocations up to 50% more than the regular share of 3-5% of GDP, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Puducherry, the health sector would require a minimum allocation of ₹100 crore, additionally, to ramp up its resources for pandemic control in the future.
In the last fiscal, the allocation for health was ₹774 crore, against a demand for ₹995 crore. In the upcoming Budget, he had demanded an estimated ₹1,030 crore for health.
