1 COVID-19 patient discharged, total Pondy cases now 3

The number of COVID-19 cases under treatment in the Indira Gandhi Government Medical college hospital here has fallen to three from four with the discharge of one after recovery, a territorial Minister said on Monday.

The Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao told reporters that the union territory had eight patients and were taking treatment in the hospital.

At one stage, the number of patients stood at four after recovery of four patients from the infection, he said.

On one more patient tested negative on Sunday and was discharged bringing down the total active cases to three now, the Minister said. The fall in the number of patients to three was a welcome development for the government and health authorities.

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The patient discharged hailed from neighbouring Reddiyarpalayam and was undergoing treatment for more than 14 days. He said there was no COVID-19 case in Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam regions, all enclaves of Puducherry, in Tamilnadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh respectively.

The Minister said door-to-door surveillance was continued and teams of health professionals and volunteers from private medical colleges contacted the people in each of the 2.89 houses (with a population strength of 11.52 lakh out of the total population of 13 lakh) so far and collected details of their health status.

Rao said 1,983 samples out of 1,987 samples tested so far were negative and results of the remaining four samples were awaited. He appealed to the people to continue their cooperation during the remaining days of the ongoing lockdown to maintain the record of Puducherry in containing the infection.

Rao said the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had at a video conference with him recently appreciated the work of the territorial administration in checking the spread of the virus. "The coordinated work by staff of Health, Police, PWD, Local Administration, Welfare and other departments with the cooperation of the people has made Puducherry a safe place," Rao said.