Port Blair, Apr 18 (PTI) Andaman and Nicobar Islands COVID-19 caseload surged to 5,331 as 42 more people tested positive for the virus, a health department official said on Sunday.

The COVID-19 death toll in the archipelago rose to 64 as one more person succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, he said.

Of the 42 new coronavirus cases, 31 were detected in South Andaman district during contact tracing and the rest 11 tested positive for COVID-19 during rapid antigen test at the airport upon arrival, he said.

The union territory now has 121 active CsOVID-19 cases and all the patients are in South Andaman district. The other two districts - North and Middle Andaman and Nicobar - have no active COVID-19 cases, the official said.

Thirty-six more COVID-19 patients recovered from the disease, taking the total number of recoveries to 5,146, he said.

The union territory administration has so far tested 3,49,739 samples for COVID-19 and the test positivity rate is 1.52 per cent.

The official further said that so far more than 61,000 people in the archipelago have received the COVID-19 vaccine.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)