Port Blair, May 25 (PTI) At least nine more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, taking the tally in the Union Territory to 6,853, an official said on Tuesday.

The death toll rose to 104 as one more person succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours, he said.

Twenty-two people were cured of the disease during the period, taking the total number of recoveries in the archipelago to 6,495.

The Union Territory now has 254 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, he said, adding that people arriving here from the mainland are mandatorily required to undergo rapid antigen test.

"The administration is relentlessly working to protect citizens from being infected with coronavirus," Information, Publicity and Tourism secretary Sunil Kumar Singh said.

He also stated that all the flights were cancelled on Monday due to cyclonic weather. As many as 18 passengers at Ferrargunj underwent rapid antigen tests, none of them was found positive.

In a bid to break the chain of the coronavirus infection, the administration has imposed a lockdown from May 24 in South Andaman district which accounted for the maximum number of active cases at 247. The restriction will be in force till May 31, the official said.

All shops selling essential items remain open between 6 am and 8 am daily during the period.

Altogether, 1,21,211 people have been inoculated in the archipelago till Monday, with 17,358 of them having received both doses of the COVID vaccine.

At least 2,921 people in the age group of 18 to 44 years have been vaccinated in Andaman and Nicobar Islands so far, the official said.

The administration has conducted 3,83,396 sample tests for COVID-19 thus far, and the positivity rate stands at 1.79 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)