Puducherry witnessed rise in number of fresh COVID-19 cases with 80 people testing positive, a senior official of the Department of Health said on Thursday.?

The Union Territory on Wednesday reported 16 new coronavirus cases. Director of Health G Sriramulu in a release said, the 80 cases surfaced after examination of 1,223 samples in the last 24 hours ending 10 AM today.

Puducherry region alone reported 65 fresh cases out of the 80 cases while Karaikal had 13 and Yanam two. Mahe, an enclave of Puducherry in Kerala did not report any new case today, the Director said.

He said the active cases were 364 which comprised nine patients undergoing treatment in hospitals including JIPMER and the remaining 355 in home quarantine.

Sriramulu said the overall caseload ?was 1,72,270. Seventy-eight patients recovered during the last 24 hours and the overall recoveries were 1,69,939.?

There was no fresh fatality from any of the four regions of Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam and the death toll remained at 1,967.

Sriramulu said the test positivity rate was 6.54 per cent while the fatality and recovery rates were 1.14 per cent and 98.65 per cent, respectively.

The Department has so far tested 23,69,959 samples and found 20,06,186 out of them to be negative. The Director said the department had so far administered ?19,73,471 doses which comprised 9,85,563 first doses, 7,91,600 second doses and 1,96,308 booster doses.

(With PTI inputs)