Puducherry records one more death; toll rises to 627

Puducherry recorded one more COVID-19 death on Monday raising the toll to 627 while new cases in the last 24 hours dropped to 14.

The death of an 85-year old man in Karaikal has taken the toll in the enclave to 61.

Of the new cases, which were detected while testing 1,971 samples, seven were from Mahe, six from Puducherry and one from Karaikal.

The number of active cases stood at 332 after 26 people recovered. While 192 patients are in hospital, 140 are in home isolation.

The test positivity rate was 0.71%, case fatality rate 1.66% and recovery rate 97.46%. The Health Department has to date tested 4.56 lakh samples of which 4.14 lakh were negative.

A. Anbarasu, Commissioner, Relief and Rehabilitation, sent out a public audio message cautioning about the emergence of a variant of coronavirus in the U.K. that was reported to be 70% more transmissible.

He said the VUI strain was also being reported in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia and led the WHO to issue caution.

The Joint Monitoring Group under the Director General of Health Services had also appealed to States and Union Territories to tighten safety and prevention measures.

In spite of the marked decline in the coronavirus caseload in Puducherry, the level of vigilance had to remain high especially with the Christmas-New Year season around the corner, Mr. Anbarasu said.