With more curbs lifted, next couple of weeks will be crucial for Puducherry

Administration hoping to maintain trend while opening up economic activities

With more curbs lifted from the lockdown phase that ends at midnight on June 14, the next couple of weeks could be crucial in determining the impact of the unlocking on the COVID-19 situation, health officials say. While new relaxations followed a consistent decline in fresh infections, positivity rate and mortalities, the administration is hoping to maintain the downward trend while opening up more economic activities. For a large part of May, the Union Territory was reporting between 1,500 to 1,900 new cases a day while deaths were in the 20-30 range with a peak of 34 deaths on May 23, while since June 1, these numbers have come down to the 500-1,000 range with fatalities too dropping to around 10 or below.