ICMR to hold virtual meet with Mahe officials after spurt in Covid-19 cases

PUDUCHERRY: Experts from the Indian Council of Medical Research will hold a virtual meeting with the health officials in Mahe -- Puducherry's enclave in Kerala -- to review the standard operating procedures in place and suggest improvements, if any, after the region started witnessing a spurt in number of Covid-19 cases.

Presently, there are 151 active cases in Mahe, next only to Puducherry (161). The total number of active cases in the territory is 370 including 44 in Karaikal and 14 in Yanam.

The health directorate has proposed to increase the number of Covid-19 tests from 200 to 500 per day in Mahe and bed strength to more than 300.

The territory reported 30 fresh Covid-19 cases, and 46 patients recovered in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate of the samples (3,153) tested on Wednesday stood at 1%.

The territory did not report any death on Wednesday, and death toll remained at 615. Puducherry headquarters has the maximum fatalities 503 followed by Karaikal (59), Yanam (45) and Mahe (8). The fatality rate is 1.7%.

The territory has so far reported 37,339 cases of which 36,354 patients recovered registering a recovery rate 97.3%.

Healthcare authorities have sent 4.25 lakh swab samples of which 3.84 lakh samples returned negative.