NE HEALTH BUREAU
PUDUCHERRY, MAR 18
The union territory of Puducherry registered 81 fresh coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours, a top Health department official said on Thursday.
A 69-year old woman succumbed in the Karaikal region pushing the toll to 674.
The 81 new cases were identified after the examination of 1,353 specimens, taking the overall tally 40,201, a release from the Director of Health and Family Welfare Services S Mohan Kumar said.
Puducherry had on Wednesday reported 52 new COVID-19 cases as against the 24 on Tuesday.
The number of active cases stood at 216 while 39,251 patients had recovered and were discharged so far.
The Puducherry region alone accounted for 62 fresh cases followed by Karaikal (12) and Mahe (7) while the Yanam region did not report any new infection, he said.
The poll-bound union territory has witnessed a rise in new cases in the past few days.
The fatality and recovery rates were 1.68 per cent and 97.8 per cent respectively.
The Health department Director said that as many as 6.40 lakh samples were examined so far and it was found that 6.03 lakh were negative.
Mohan Kumar said so far 16,297 healthcare workers and 5,897 frontline workers have been vaccinated against the virus.
The second phase of vaccination of senior citizens and those above 45 years with comorbidities has so far covered 13,401 people since March 1
Panel moots closure of schools temporarily in Puducherry to check COVID-19 spread
Also, the committee discussed appropriate containment strategies and ways to accelerate the pace of #COVIDVaccination #LargestVaccineDrive #StaySafe #WearAMask
@DrTamilisaiGuv @TamilisaiOffice @PIB_India @pibchennai @DDNewsChennai @DDPodhigaiTV pic.twitter.com/2VR9n2UmHT
— Lt. Gov. Puducherry (@LGov_Puducherry) March 18, 2021
A high-level committee of the Puducherry Health department on Thursday recommended ”temporary” closure of schools and ramping up testing in the union territory among various precautionary measures in view of a spurt in COVID-19 cases in recent days.
Mask Puducherry movement to be launched
The meeting of the vaccination committee chaired by Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan reviewed the prevalence of the pandemic and steps taken to combat it so far and decided to launch “mask Puducherry” movement to ensure all people used the face mask to prevent the spread of the virus.
It requested the Lt Governor to close schools ”temporarily” as a precautionary measure besides deciding that testing of samples should be ramped up to RTPCR and rapid antigen test in the ratio of 70:30, a release from Director of Health S Mohan Kumar said.
Schools in the UT have been reopened in phases since January after remaining closed for over nine months due to the pandemic.
It also decided that more containment should be planned for hotspot areas and fever clinics be established in such places.
The meeting also different departments should be involved in the Covid management drive. Another decision of the meeting was that all medical colleges in UT should enroll their students under `front line workers` category and get them vaccinated against Covid after getting clarification from the Centre. Political meetings should follow the protocols of health safety and more specifically on using masks, the meeting said, in an apparent reference to the ongoing campaign for the assembly elections scheduled for April 6.
