Puducherry, Mar 9 (PTI) Puducherry registered eight new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday raising the overall tally in the Union Territory to 1,65,756. In a press release, Director of Health G Sriramulu said the eight new cases identified out of 608 samples were reported from Karaikal (six) and Mahe (two). Puducherry and Yanam regions reported no fresh case in the last 24 hours, the Director said. The UT has 29 active coronavirus cases comprising three patients recovering in hospitals and the remaining 26 patients in home quarantine. Sriramulu said five patients recovered from the infection and were discharged during the last 24 hours while the overall recoveries in the UT were 1,63,765. He said no fresh fatality was reported from any of the four regions during the last 24 hours as the death toll remained unchanged at 1,962. The health department has tested 22,21,274 samples so far and has found 18,66,052 samples out of them to be negative. The test positivity rate was 1.32 per cent while the fatality and recovery rates were 1.18 per cent and 98.80 per cent, respectively. The health department has administered 15,99,515 doses across the UT so far comprising 9,32,623 first doses, 6,54,129 second doses and 12,763 booster doses, the Director said. PTI COR HDA HDA