Nine new COVID-19 cases were reported in Puducherry on Thursday. The new cases included six Jipmer security staff and a laundry service staffer, a private sector employee who commuted to Cuddalore and a driver attached to health services.
“We are bracing up to see around 500 cases in the June-July period and are ramping up healthcare facilities to tackle such a scenario,” Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said.
As against the three cases during the first 50 days of lockdown, Puducherry was seeing four to five new cases every day over the past three weeks, he said.
The active cases in the UT are 63, taking the cumulative total to 99 and 36 were discharged.
Jipmer clarifies
Meanwhile, Jipmer has clarified that the security staff do not work in Jipmer and that they are not in the payrolls of the
institution. They work in supervisory capacity in a security agency which provides outsourced security service to many other organisations in Puducherry including Jipmer. So far, none of the security staff working in the Institute are positive for COVID-19, Jipmer said.
