KARAIKAL/PUDUCHERRY: After over a year, Karaikal recorded its first Covid-19 death after a 35-year-old woman with comorbidities, including a brain tumour, died on Monday. She died at the JIPMER Hospital in Puducherry.
According to the Director of Health and Family Welfare Dr G Sriramulu, the 35-year-old resident of Karaikal, was admitted to JIPMER Hospital on March 31 as she was suffering from a brain tumour, and had tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday.
Following the Covid fatality, the district administration of Karaikal and the Puducherry government held talks to discuss the measures to flatten the curve. An official of the health services department in Karaikal said, "Before contracting the virus, the patient was ailing from a brain tumour. She died despite treatment.
She has been laid to rest in Karaikal." As Covid cases have been on a rise in the district over the past four days, officials of the health services department issued an advisory to residents to abide by the protocol, including social distancing.
Sources said at least 275 Covid-related deaths have been recorded in the district, adding that as many as 24, 942 cases were registered over the past three years. Around 2.3 lakh doses of vaccines have been administered in three doses in the district, they added.
District Collector A Kulothungan strengthened the guidelines to be followed, making it mandatory to wear face masks in public. Meanwhile, Puducherry, too, has been taking similar measures to curb the spread of cases. "No fresh cases were reported in Puducherry on Monday.
However, two cases were reported in Karaikal. Usually, the test count is minimal on Sundays. RT-PCR tests are carried out in JIPMER Hospital and the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, and all the primary health centres," Dr Sriramulu.