PUDUCHERRY: In the biggest single-day COVID-19 spike in Puducherry, 30 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the Union Territory as well as one death in JIPMER.
Releasing the information, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said 28 cases are in Puducherry region and two in Karaikal region. With this, the total number of cases in the UT has risen to 245 and deaths to five.
Presently, 131 persons are undergoing treatment, which includes 121 in Puducherry, six in Karaikal and four in Mahe region. There is also one case each being treated in hospitals in Chennai and Maharashtra. In all, 109 patients have been discharged after recovery including 10 patients on Wednesday.
Till now, 10,929 samples have been tested, of which 10,511 have been negative and the test results of 189 are awaited.
The Health Minister said the man who died at Jipmer last evening was an 80-year-old from VVP Nagar, Thattanchavady, who was suffering from chronic kidney disease.
He said the borders are being checked thoroughly from today as a good number of cases are people who have returned from Chennai. Rao regretted that those who test positive are not revealing their full list of contacts correctly which is hampering the tracing of people infected by the virus.
People are also not having any fear despite the increase in cases and are wandering on the roads freely, he said. If the virus starts spreading, it will be very difficult for the government to contain it, he added, appealing to people not to roam about unnecessarily and requesting them to wear masks and maintain social distancing while coming out.
Director of Medical Services (DMS) Dr S Mohan Kumar said that of those discharged today, seven are doctors from JIPMER. Eleven new containment zones were announced and three removed, he added.