Puducherry records one death and 72 new cases

One more COVID-19 death took the toll to 17 in the Union Territory on Friday. The death of an 80-year-old woman in Karaikal GH was the second COVID-19 fatality in the enclave.

Of the 72 new cases of COVID-19, 67 were in Puducherry and five in Karaikal. The cases were diagnosed while testing 970 samples, which is also the highest number of tests conducted in a 24-hour span.

Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao told reporters that the government was strengthening the infrastructure at the hospitals in anticipation of an increase in cases in the weeks ahead.

“We will expedite process of procuring the equipment, including ventilators for the hospitals by July 20”, he said.

At present, 618 people are undergoing treatment in the UT. There are 561 patients in Puducherry (372 patients at IGMCRI, 116 at Jipmer and 73 in COVID care centres), 35 in Karaikal GH, 20 in Yanam GH, and two in Mahe GH.

The tally in the UT is 17 deaths, 618 active cases, a cumulative total of 1,272 cases with 637 patients discharged.

So far, a total of 23,515 samples have been tested, of which 21,982 samples were negative.