Puducherry on Thursday logged 323 fresh coronavirus cases while 13 related fatalities pushed the death toll in the union territory to 431.
The 323 new cases were identified after examination of 4,867 samples during the last 24 hours while 330 patients were discharged from hospitals, Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release.
He said the overall tally of Covid-19 cases in Puducherry stood at 21,428 (after transfer of six cases to Tamil Nadu).
The active cases was 4,744 while the number of patients who had recovered and were discharged was 16,253.
He said the fatality rate touched 2.01 per cent, adding this was the first time it had reached such a level in Puducherry and recovery rate was 75.85 per cent.
As many as 13 people including four women died in the last 24 hours, he added.
Most of the patients who died had co-morbidities particularly diabetes and hypertension and the deceased were in the age group ranging between 18 and 85 years, Mohan Kumar said.
The Health department Director said that 1,19,720 samples had been tested so far of which 92,383 samples have tested negative.
Result of examination of the remaining specimens was awaited.
Of the total 323 new cases, the Puducherry region alone accounted for 216 followed by Karaikal (68), Yanam (30) and Mahe (9).