Puducherry, Aug 16 (PTI) Puducherry witnessed a sharp fall in the number of new COVID-19 cases, with only 20 people testing positive for the virus on Tuesday, taking the overall caseload to 1,72,174.The fresh cases were detected during the examination of 209 samples.Puducherry region alone reported 14 fresh cases while Karaikal saw four and Yanam two.Mahe, an enclave in Kerala did not have any fresh case of viral infection.Director of Health G Sriramulu said in a release that active cases were 410 which consisted of nine patients in hospitals and the remaining 401 patients were in home quarantine.As many as 69 patients recovered during last twenty-four hours taking the overall recoveries to 1,69,797.The Health Department has examined so far 23,69,508 samples and found 20,05,814 out of them to be negative.There was no fresh fatality during last twenty-four hours in any of the four regions of Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam and the toll remained 1967.The Director said the test positivity rate was 9.57 percent and the fatality and recovery rates were 1.14 percent and 98.62 percent, respectively.The Health Department has administered so far 19,61,069 doses which comprised 9,85,206 first doses, 7,88,593 second doses and 1,87,270 booster doses. PTI COR ROH ROH