The union territory of Puducherry clocked 1,471 fresh coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours pushing the cumulative caseload to 1,35,337, a senior Health department official said on Friday.
The test positivity rate was 28.47 per cent as against Thursday's 26.44 per cent. Director of Health and Family Welfare Services G Sriramulu said in a release that the 1,471 new cases were identified at the end of the examination of 5,167 samples and were spread over Puducherry (1,335), Karaikal (97), Mahe (25) and Yanam (14).
One more person- a 74-year old woman- hailing from Karaikal succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours ending 10 AM Friday, pushing the death toll to 1,884. The number of active cases stood at 5,658 with 112 patients undergoing treatment in hospitals and remaining 5,546 in home isolation.
The Health Department has so far tested 20,87,547 samples and has found 17,71,224 out of them to be negative, Sriramulu said. The Department has administered so far 14,95,097 doses which comprised 9,05,503 first doses, 5,87,749 second and 1,845 precaution doses.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader V Narayanasamy accused the government of "failing to take steps to ramp up infrastructure facilities in hospitals." He told a virtual press conference late on Thursday night that although the government- run Indira Gandhi Medical College hospital had required infrastructures to establish Covid wards, the government was making moves to set up Covid care centres at different sites.
He also said that the number of samples tested every day should also be 6,500. Narayanasamy said lack of infrastructure and shortage of beds had been a matter of concern. He said the government should not have permitted organising celebrations on the eve of New Year 2022 and the large influx of people from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and other states had contributed to the rise in number of coronavirus cases.
He accused the Lt Governor and the Chief Minister of making only formal visits to vaccination centres without taking practical steps to ramp up infrastructure. Narayanasamy said the government should focus on rural areas as there was a big rise in number of COVID-19 infections in rural pockets.
With inputs from PTI.
