Chennai, Apr 21 (IANS): The Union Territory of Puducherry has decided to impose lockdown from April 23 (Friday night) till April 26 (Monday morning) amidst the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

The decision to impose lockdown in the Union Territory was taken by a high level meeting chaired by Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry (Additional Charge), Tamilsai Soundararajan held at the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday late night.

All shops will remain closed after 2 p.m. from Wednesday onwards and in restaurants only takeaways are permitted from 2 p.m. onwards. The UT has imposed a night curfew from Tuesday onwards between 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Puducherry reported 4,692 active cases till Tuesday, according to the health department officials.

It may be noted that the fatality rate of the Union Territory has touched 1.5 per cent on Monday which is above the national average of 1.2 per cent.

Puducherry headquarters has the maximum number of deaths with 572. Karakkal has 84 deaths followed by Yanam with 45 deaths and Mahe with 12.

Interestingly the recovery rate of the Union Territory is 88.8 per cent which is above the national average of 86 per cent.

a total of 48,336 cases were reported from Puducherry Union Territory of which 42,931 patients recovered from the disease.

Health department has sent 7.33 lakh swab samples for testing of which 6.66 lakh samples turned negative and more than half of the population of the Union Territory of Puducherry underwent Covid test. Puducherry has a population of 14 lakh people.

A press release from the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare states that it has so far administered Covid 19 vaccines to 30,202 healthcare workers, 17,961 frontline workers and 1,08 lakh others taking the total of people who were administered vaccine to 1.55 lakh people.