Port Blair, Jan 4 (PTI) The number of active COVID-19 cases in Andaman and Nicobar Islands jumped to 41 as 20 more people tested positive for the infection, while only three persons were cured of the disease in the last 24 hours, an official said on Tuesday.

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The fresh infections raised the tally in the Union Territory to 7,763, he said.

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Of the new patients, 10 have travel history and others were detected during contact tracing.

Ten fresh cases of coronavirus infection were reported on Sunday.

The death toll remained at 129 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours, the official said.

At least 7,593 people have so far recovered from the disease in the archipelago.

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 COVID tests.

Altogether, 5,94,997 people have been inoculated with 2,93,992 of them having received both doses of the vaccines.

At least 1,934 people were vaccinated on January 3, and of them, 1,293 beneficiaries were in the age group of 15-18 years.

"All the active cases are in the South Andaman district. At least 1,607 beneficiaries were inoculated there during the day. Of the total number of immunised people in the age group of 15-18 years, 1,010 were in the South Andaman and 283 in North and Middle Andaman," the official said.

Congress MP from the archipelago, Kuldeep Rai Sharma, has requested the authorities to direct the health and education departments to arrange vaccination of children in their respective schools to avoid gatherings in immunisation centres.

He also congratulated the Andaman and Nicobar administration for starting the inoculation drive for children between 15-18 years in Port Blair from Monday.

The administration has conducted over 6.68 lakh sample tests for COVID-19 so far, and the positivity rate stands at 1.16 per cent, the official added.

(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)