Port Blair, Apr 26 (PTI) Months after keeping the COVID-19 outbreak in check, Andaman and Nicobar Islands have started experiencing the second wave of coronavirus infections with 51 more people testing positive for the disease, which took the tally in the Union Territory to 5,665, an official said Monday.

Ten new patients have travel history, and 41 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, he said.

At least 57 people were cured of the disease during the period, taking the total number of recoveries in the archipelago to 5,467.

The Union Territory now has 132 active cases.

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

"People arriving here from the mainland are mandatorily required to undergo rapid antigen test," he 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, 1,00,688 people have been inoculated in the archipelago, with 11,582 of them having received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"The vaccination sessions are continuing in more than 88 designated centres in the islands," he said.

The Andaman and Nicobar administration has conducted 3,63,056 sample tests for COVID-19 so far, and the positivity rate stands at 1.56 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)