Puducherry reported 386 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths on Thursday. The capital accounted for two deaths and Karaikal three. The patients, including two women, were in the age group of 54 to 75 years.
S. Mohan Kumar, Health Director, said in a press note that the five fatalities took the COVID-19 toll in the Union Territory to 556.
The new cases were identified from testing 4,669 samples during the last 24 hours. Puducherry accounted for 281 cases followed by Karaikal (39), Yanam (14) and Mahe (52). In all, 326 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours.
16% population covered
The test positivity rate was 8.26%, case fatality rate 1.82% and recovery rate 82.70%. “We have conducted tests for more than 16 % of the population. After sustaining the high testing rate for a few more days, we plan to reorient the focus of health manpower towards monitoring home isolation cases and cutting down the number of COVID-19 deaths,” Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said.
The Health Department has so far carried out 2,20,349 tests, with 1,86,349 samples testing negative.
The tally stands at 556 deaths, 4,727 active cases, a cumulative total of 30,539 cases and 25,256 recovered patients.
Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi, who reviewed the situation, said proper linkages would be made for active surveillance reports to be shared with PHC medical officers on a daily basis. Security personnel would be deployed at PHCs to help regulate crowds.
The administration would examine the suggestion to provide oximeters to policemen from the fines collected for COVID-19 violations.
Colour-coded bins for collection of biomedical waste would be provided to the PHCs on an urgent basis.
The collection of biomedical waste by private aggregators would be permitted beyond the scheduled working hours post 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
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