Five more succumb to coronavirus in Puducherry, toll climbs to 75

Five people, including three women, died of Covid-19 in Puducherry, where 244 fresh cases were registered on Friday, taking the aggregate of those who tested positive to the pathogen in the union territory to 4,862.

Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release that with 244 new cases being reported in the last 24 hours ending 10 am on Friday, the tally now stood at 4,862. Most of the patients who died of the viral infection had co-morbidities. The deceased were in the age group of 65 and 85 years. There are 1,873 active cases out of the total 4,862 patients, including 567 home quarantined patients, the Director said.

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Total patients who were treated and discharged were 2914 and fatalities were 75. The 244 new cases were identified after examination of 856 samples during last twenty-four hours of whom 233 are in hospitals in Puducherry, ten in government GH in Karaikal and one in Yanam region. Puducherry now has a positivity rate of 28.5 per cent while the rate of fatality is 1.5 per cent. He said 77 patients were discharged from hospitals during last twenty-four hours. Of the 45,098 samples tested so far 39,554 were found to be negative and results of an examination of remaining samples were awaited.