Puducherry’s COVID-19 case tally crossed 28,000, as 489 more persons tested positive for the infection on Thursday, even as four more fatalities took the Union Territory’s toll to 525.
All deaths were recorded in the capital, and included that of former Director of Medical Services D. Carounanidy. The deceased, including a woman, had co-morbidities and were in the 53-83 age group. The case fatality rate stood at 1.87% and recovery rate at 80.31%.
“A further relaxation in restrictions by the Government of India makes it all the more imperative that people wear masks and comply with physical distancing norms,” Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said. He has also asked the Education Department to supply a pair of masks to each government school student.
The new cases were reported after testing 5,153 samples, indicating a positivity rate of 9.48%.
The Puducherry region accounted for 379 fresh cases, followed by Karaikal (79), Yanam (11) and Mahe (20).
The number of toll touched 525, active cases touched 4,994, tally 28,024 and total number of patients discharged 22,505, including as many as 431 patients discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours.
The Health Department has so far tested 1,89,568 samples and 1,58,206 of those have returned negative.
Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi said a key challenge going forward would be resource replacement, especially with teachers returning to schools, and creating reserve manpower from private medical colleges and nursing colleges. The Gorimedu Police Guesthouse would be converted into a COVID-19 care centre for children, she added.
