Puducherry records 1,703 COVID 19 cases, 19 new deaths
Puducherry: Puducherry's coronavirus tally shot up to 70,076 as 1,703 infections were added afresh during the last 24 hours ending 10 am on Saturday.
The Union Territory also registered 19 new fatalities, raising the toll to939.
The new cases were identified at the end of examination of 9132 samples projecting test positivity rate at 18.64 percent, the Director of Health and Family Welfare Services S Mohan Kumar said.
Puducherry region alone accounted for 1,355 new cases out of the total 1,703 and this is followed by Karaikal 171, Yanam 153 and Mahe 24.
The fatality and recovery rates were 1.34 percent and 79.27 percent respectively.
The Director said that 1177 patients were discharged from hospitals during last twenty-four hours.
The active cases were 13,585 and total recoveries so far stood at 55,552.
On the vaccination front, the Director said 32,835 health care workers were vaccinated so far while19,364 front line workers were inoculated in the Union Territory.
The Health Department has vaccinated 1,59,879 people belonging either to the category of sixty years and above or to the group of 45 years and above with co morbidities.
Eleven men and eight women died of infection during last twenty-four hours.
Their age groups were in the range of 37 and 85 years, the Director said.
Most of the deceased had co morbidities like diabetes and all of them died of covid pneumonia.
Meanwhile, the Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan launched distribution of five kilo food grains free of cost to the people covered under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana to mitigate the hardships the poorer sections faced during the pandemic as the livelihood was hit due to lockdown.
Tamilisai said in a release that 1.75 lakh families were being covered under the free rice scheme.
