Puducherry recorded six COVID-19 deaths and 493 new cases from testing 5,580 samples on Tuesday.
While the cumulative toll went up to 473, the COVID-19 death count in the capital alone aggregated 403 after the addition of five more fatalities. Yanam reported one death. The patients, including four women, were in the 37 to 87 age group.
The toll in Yanam is 39 and in Karaikal 31. No deaths were reported in Mahe.
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The case fatality rate was 2%, and the recovery rate at 77.92%.
Puducherry accounted for 407 of the new cases, followed by Karaikal (53), Yanam (29) and Mahe (four), a bulletin from S. Mohan Kumar, Director of Health, said.
The active cases tally is 4,757, including the 2,963 patients in home quarantine, while 389 patients were discharged during the last 24 hours. The cumulative case load aggregated 23,684 cases with 18,454 patients discharged so far.
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So far, the Department has carried out 1,43,901 tests, of which 1,15,426 returned negative.
Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said he was leading a health team to Karaikal to assess the shortfall, if any, in the COVID-19 prevention strategy in the enclave, where cases had seen an increase in recent weeks.
He would also hold discussions with Agriculture Minister R. Kamalakannan and local MLAs on what is needed to be done to control the situation.
The Minister is slated to visit Mahe next week.
Steps are under way to strengthen manpower at the IGMCRI, the designated COVID institution.
Grading system
Meanwhile, Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi said the grading system for PHCs, which rolls out on Wednesday, is aimed at ensuring that all of them remain self-driven and sustain and keep improving to keep COVID-19 under control.
All PHCs shall self- evaluate themselves on identified parameters given by the ICMR, once in three days — Wednesdays and Saturdays. On their self-assessment, the Relief and Rehabilitation Secretary will grade their performance as A, B, and C and computerise it for record sharing. This will also go into their personal files, Ms. Bedi said.
The briefing at Raj Nivas will also involve a daily death analysis that lists out causes and lessons to prevent mortality, Ms. Bedi said.