8 new coronavirus cases reported in Andamans

Port Blair: The COVID-19 caseload in Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose to 5,131 as eight more people tested positive for the disease in the Union Territory, a health department official said on Thursday.

Of the new patients, six have travel history and two were detected during contact tracing, he said.

The death toll remained at 62 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours.

At least 10 people were cured of the disease during the period, taking the total number of recoveries in the archipelago to 5,020, the official said.

The Union Territory now has 49 active



cases.

Altogether, 12,778 health and frontline workers have been inoculated and 11,100 people above 45 years of age received the vaccine shots, he said.

People arriving here by flights or reaching by ships from Kolkata or Chennai are mandatorily required to show a negative coronavirus report before the authorities allow them to enter the islands.

The overall COVID situation is under control in the archipelago, the official said.

The Andaman and Nicobar administration has conducted 3,30,481 sample tests for COVID-19 so far, and the positivity rate stands at 1.55 per cent.