Gangtok, Jul 30 (PTI) Sikkim reported 179 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the caseload to 26,311, a health department bulletin said on Friday.

The state reported five more coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 342, it said.

Sikkim now has 3,302 active cases, while 269 others have migrated to other states, and 22,398 people have recovered from the infection.

South Sikkim district registered 79 new cases, followed by East Sikkim (65), West Sikkim (34) and North Sikkim (1).

The state has tested 1,487 samples for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of samples tested thus far to 1,98,882.

The state's positivity rate has come down to 12 per cent from 16 per cent on Thursday.

The recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state has marginally improved to 86 per cent from 85.9 per cent on Thursday.

(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)