Puducherry reports 141 new Covid-19 cases; CM, Ministers test negative

Puducherry Chief Minister V

Narayanasamy, his cabinet colleagues and legislators of various political parties here tested negative for coronavirus on Tuesday.

The results came negative after testing of the swabs collected from them at a special camp held on the premises of the Assembly Monday.

The testing of the CM, Speaker, Ministers and MLAs besides the staff of the Assembly Secretariat and of offices of the Ministers was necessitted after opposition AINRC legislator N S J Jayabal, who had attended the recent budget session, had tested positive and hospitalised.

Meanwhile, 141 fresh COVID-19 cases and four related deaths were reported in the Union Territory during the last 24 hours ending 10 a.m. on Tuesday, taking the tally to 3,011.

Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar, Finance Secretary Shurbir Singh and Secretary to Assembly R Mounussamy were also examined and they tested negative for the infection, an official source told PTI Tuesday.

Two watch and ward staff, who were among the employees of the Assembly examined at the camp however tested positive and were admitted to the hospital.

With the main hall of the Assembly being shut after sanitisation, the House had its sitting on the last day of the session (July 25) in the open air under neem tree.

In a release, the Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said 141 fresh cases were reported in Union Territory on Tuesday, taking the aggregate to 3,011.

Of the total 3,011 cases, 1,182 were active, while 1,782 patients recovered and discharged so far.

Total fatalities rose to 47 in the wake of death of four patients in Puducherry, the Director said.

Of the four patients, who succumbed to the infection during the last 24 hours included the General Secretary of the opposition AINRC and former legislator V Bhalan (68) in a private hospital.

All these patients had co-morbidities.

Bhalan was chairman of the Puducherry State government owned Textiles corporation till 2016.

He was a close confidante of the former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition N Rangasamy (AINRC).

The identification of new cases at the end of examination of 874 samples projected the rate of positivity in Puducherry at 16.1 percent while the fatality rate was 1.56 percent.

Of the 36,288 samples tested so far 32,837 were found to be negative and results of examination of remaining samples were awaited.