An audit of the two COVID-19 deaths in Puducherry has revealed that delay in seeking treatment at a hospital led to the fatalities, Collector T. Arun said on Tuesday.
The capital recorded two fatalities. Puducherry’s share of the cumulative toll of 517 stood at 438.
At a press conference, Mr. Arun said the public health audit, which was carried out alongside the clinical audit, for each COVID-19 death showed that in both cases, the patients had failed to heed the advice of ASHA/ANM workers to seek hospital treatment. The patients had also failed to volunteer for testing.
The delay in reaching hospital has been found to be a leading contributor to the high mortality among COVID-19 patients, especially with most of them aged above 60 and having underlying morbidities.
The Collector urged the public to ensure that those with symptoms of influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infection were taken to COVID focus centre or hospital without delay and to volunteer for tests.
From Wednesday, anganwadi workers would be deployed to help in monitoring of patients in home quarantine. As of Tuesday, there were 4,933 active cases, including 3,171 patients in home isolation.
The Union Territory also registered 387 fresh cases from 5,031 tests in the last 24 hours, even as its overall tally aggregated 27,066.
“We are focused on keeping the positivity rate under 10%, while pegging the volume of samples at 5,000 a day,” the Collector said.
The case fatality rate was 1.91% and the recovery rate 79.86%.
Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi, who chaired a review meeting, said PHCs had been tasked with conducting Rapid Antigen Tests and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) tests at 3:1. Ambulances from willing private medical colleges and the CII would be sourced in coordination with the Secretaries of the Departments of Labour and Industries for timely transport of patients to hospital.
The two departments would also take up with industries their requirement for COVID-19 negative certificates from workers who had tested positive.