Puducherry, Jan 28 (PTI) The union territory of Puducherry witnessed a spike in the number of fresh coronavirus cases as it reported 1,271 infections in the last 24 hours, a senior Health department official said on Friday. The union territory had logged 940 cases on Thursday. The 1,271 fresh cases were identified at the end of the examination of 4,714 samples and were spread over Puducherry (835), Karaikal (303), Yanam (121) and Mahe (12), Director of Health G Sriramulu said in a release. The overall tally climbed to 1,58,969. The number of active cases stood at 14,293 with 236 patients undergoing treatment in hospitals and the remaining 14,057 were in home isolation. Sriramulu said that five more patients (four from Puducherry and one from Karaikal) succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours pushing the toll to 1,921. The deceased included a 80-year old woman. The Department of Health has so far tested 21,48,805 samples and found 18,03,072 out of them to be negative. The test positivity rate was 26.96 per cent while the fatality and recovery rates were 1.21 per cent and 89.80 per cent, respectively. The Director said the Health Department has so far administered 15,29,928 doses which comprised 9,19,884 first doses, 6,03,316 second and 6,728 booster doses. PTI Cor SS SS