Puducherry recorded the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities and new cases in a single day with seven deaths taking the toll to 65 on Wednesday, while new admissions grossed 286 in the last 24 hours.

While three deaths were at the IGMCRI and one in JIPMER, three were in Yanam. Among the dead, which included three women, a 48-year-old, who passed away at the IGMCRI, was the youngest. The others were in the 60-80 age-group.

The overall case load in Puducherry aggregated 4,432 and active cases were 1,721, including 444 in home isolation, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said.

There was a spike in new cases in Puducherry (182), Yanam (80) and Karaikal (21) while three new admissions were reported in Mahe. The new cases were identified on testing 1,024 samples, showing rate of positivity at 27.9%. The case fatality rate was 1.46%.

More beds to be added

He said six private medical colleges, which began taking COVID-19 patients, would be earmarking more beds by the end of the week to ready a bed strength of about 1,000. Ambulances will also be used to respond to calls from people who fall sick at home. The distribution of active cases is 1,004 in the UT, 191 in Yanam, 78 in Karaikal and four in Mahe and 109 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours.

So far, 43,134 samples have been tested, of which 38,073 were negative.