PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry Legislative Assembly has been closed till July 31 after three staff tested positive for COVID-19. The Assembly had already been closed on July 27 and 28 after AINRC MLA NS Jayabal tested positive for the virus.
Secretary Assembly R Munussamy in a release stated that two watch and ward staff who were on duty in the front and back gates and a private assistant to BJP MLA V Swaminathan tested positive for COVID-19. The offices in the Assembly will remain closed till July 31 and will function from August 3.
Among the 126 samples given in the Legislative Assembly complex, the other three who tested positive are not staff working in the Assembly. One is a 14-year-old child and the other two are a village administrative officer and a health department staffer, sources said.
Amid the pandemic, the closure of the Assembly has posed difficulties in the functioning of the Chief Minister and ministers as their offices are in the Assembly premises.
Meanwhile, four persons including an ex-MLA V Bhalan succumbed to COVID-19 and 141 fresh cases were recorded on Tuesday, taking the tally past 3000. The number of cases has gone up to 3011, with the active cases now 1182, while the deaths have gone up to 47.
Among the new cases, 130 are in Puducherry region and 11 in Yanam region. While three persons died in Puducherry, one died in Yanam. Besides the ex-MLA, a 54-year-old man from Kadirgaman and a 78-year-old man from Indira Nagar extension died at IGMCRI and JIPMER respectively.
Among the 1182 people undergoing treatment, 953 are in the Puducherry region (430 are being treated at the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Research Institute (IGMCRI), 319 at JIPMER and 203 in COVID care centres), one in Tamil Nadu, 32 in Karaikal GH, 52 in Yanam GH and two in Mahe GH. The infection rate is 16.1 percent and fatality rate 1.56 percent.
In all, 1782 patients have been discharged after recovery including 62 patients on Tuesday. Till now, 36288 samples have been tested, of which 32837 have been negative and the test results of 240 are awaited.