Puducherry reports 65 new COVID-19 cases

Puducherry: Puducherry on Monday reported 65 new COVID-19 cases, taking the overall tally past the 1,000 mark, the Health department said.

According to a medical bulletin of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, 62 of the 63 patients were admitted to government hospitals here while the outlying regions of Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam recorded one fresh case each during the last 24 hours.

The total number of coronavirus cases stood at 1,009 excluding two patients from Puducherry undergoing treatment in Villupuram in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

While the total number of active cases stood at 515, the number of patients treated and discharged was 480.

Fatalities remained at 14 as no death was reported in the union territory in the last couple of days.

Twenty-two patients were discharged after recovery in Puducherry.

The bulletin said the 65 fresh cases were identified at the end of tests of 502 samples.

While eleven of the fresh cases were below 18 years, 46 patients were in the age group of 18 to 60 years and the rest above 60.

Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar told reporters that of the 20,778 samples tested, 19,324 returned negative and results of the remaining were awaited.

Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said some private medical colleges here had not come forward to cooperate with the government to test people for COVID-19.

“Some of the private medical colleges had expressed orally that they were not interested in supplementing the efforts of the government for testing patients for the infection,” the Minister said.