India News | 51 New Cases Push COVID-19 Tally of Andamans to 5,716

Port Blair, Apr 27 (PTI) At least 51 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, taking the tally in the Union Territory to 5,716, a health department official said Tuesday.

Nine new patients have travel history, and 42 were detected during contact tracing, he said.

The death toll remained at 66 as no fresh fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours.

Fifty-three people were cured of the disease during the period, taking the total number of recoveries in the archipelago to 5,520, he said.

The Union Territory now has 130 active cases.

"There is sufficient availability of oxygen in the islands as of now. Proposals for setting up three oxygen plants have been submitted to the Centre, and approval for one such facility is expected soon," the official said.

The local administration has been strict to contain the spread of the disease and has adopted an approach of tracking, testing and treating, he said.

"People arriving here from the mainland are mandatorily required to undergo rapid antigen test," the health department official said.

The tourism sector is facing the brunt of the second wave of coronavirus cases as many people have started cancelling their bookings in view of the current COVID situation, industry sources said.

"Arrangements have been made to quarantine coronavirus-positive passengers at government-run facilities. If a traveller is diagnosed with the disease, he or she can also stay at identified hotels on a payment basis," the official said.

Altogether, 1,02,765 people have been inoculated in the archipelago, with 12,225 of them having received both doses of the COVID vaccine.

The Andaman and Nicobar administration has conducted 3,64,735 sample tests for COVID-19 so far, and the positivity rate stands at 1.57 per cent.

(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)