Puducherry drops plan to impose lockdown on 32 Covid-19 clusters following protests

PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry government on Monday withdrew its decision to impose localized lockdown on 32 hamlets which have high Covid-19 doubling rates and high positivity rates
The lockdown was to be in force from August 31 to September 6. The government withdrew the decision to impose lockdown following a widespread protest by the people.
Poor self-discipline
Lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi regretted that people continue to gather in large numbers without following social distancing norms. She warned that Puducherry would report more than 1,000 cases per day by the middle of September if people continued to violate the precautionary measures.
Quoting a doctor, Bedi said a patient, who escaped from Covid-19 ward, visited an arrack shop and consumed alcohol and returned to the ward. "How to handle such a situation. Self-discipline is very poor by alcoholics,” she regretted.
It may be recalled that the Union health and family welfare ministry had directed the Puducherry government to furnish daily reports on Covid-19 scenario to the ministry's secretary after a sudden spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in the territory.
Puducherry yet to scale up tests
The Puducherry government has not scaled up the number of Covid-19 tests to 3,000 per day despite strong recommendations by the National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), Chennai, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and a team of experts from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) on August 27.
In fact, the number of tests performed per day after the recommendations by the experts fell to 10-day low on August 29 (1,062). The territory performed 1,074 tests on Monday, the second-lowest in the last 10 days.
The experts had recommended the government to opt for rapid antigen tests (RAT) until it scales up RT PCR tests to 3,000 per day. However, the government has not released any statistics on the number of RAT performed every day.
"Right now, we are in the process of increasing the number of RT PCR tests performed per day. Six centres in the UT have been equipped to perform the RAT. Soon we will scale up the number of tests," said a health official.
The territory, for the first time in recent days, reported more recovery than fresh cases. It reported 291 fresh cases while 366 patients recovered and were discharged from various facilities. The positivity rate of the samples (1,074) tested on Monday stood at 27.1%, which is higher than the national average (less than 10%).
Puducherry headquarters has the highest number of positive cases reported on Monday with 261 followed by its enclaves Karaikal (22), Mahe (7) and Yanam (1).
Seven patients, including a woman, died of the infection taking the death toll to 228. The fatality rate of the territory is 1.6%, which is less than the national average (1.8%).
Presently, the territory has 4,849 active cases of which 2,371 patients are under home isolation and treatment. Puducherry headquarters has 2,071 patients under home isolation and treatment and 2,259 in various institutions, Yanam has 144 in houses and 130 in hospital, Karaikal has 156 in houses and 67 in hospital and Mahe 22 in hospital.
The Union territory has so far reported 14,411 Covid-19 cases of which 9,334 patients recovered and were discharged from various facilities. The recovery rate in the territory is 64.8%, which is less than the national average (76.6%).
Healthcare authorities have sent 75,031 swab samples of which 59,102 samples tested negative.