Puducherry, Dec 18 (PTI) Puducherry registered 50 fresh coronavirus cases taking the overall tally in the union territory to 37,670, a top Health department official said on Friday.

The 50 new infections were detected at the end of the examination of 2,913 samples in the last 24 hours, Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release.

He said a 78-year old patient from neighbouring Lawspet village succumbed to the infection at JIPMER during the last 24 pushing the toll to 623.

The man died of Covid pneumonia, he added.

The Health department Director said that 38 patients had recovered and were discharged Friday.

The fatality and recovery rates were 1.65 per cent and 97.51 per cent respectively.

As many as 4.47 lakh samples were tested so far and 4.05 lakh samples out of them turned out to be negative, Mohan Kumar said.

Of the total 37,670 Covid-19 cases, 316 were active while 36,731 patients had recovered and were discharged from hospitals so far, he added.PTI Cor SS

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)