Andaman & Nicobar Islands report 18 new Covid-19 cases in last 24 hours

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

reported 18 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the coronavirus tally in the union territory to 7,088, a health official said on Saturday.

The COVID-19 death toll to 121 as two more persons succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, he said.

Of the 18 new cases, 15 were detected during contact tracing while three were airport arrivals, he said.

All passengers arriving by flight have to go undergo a mandatory Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) before they are allowed entry into the islands, the official said.

Thirty-two more people have been cured of the disease, taking the total number of recoveries in the archipelago to 6,852, the official said.

The union territory now has 115 active COVID-19 cases of which 107 are in South Andaman district and eight in North and Middle Andaman district, he said, adding that the Nicobar district of the archipelago is now coronavirus free as it has no active cases.

The administration has so far tested 3,89,152 samples for COVID-19 and the cumulative test positivity rate is 1.82 per cent.

A total of 1,10,202 people have received the first dose of the COVID vaccine, while 17,386 people have been administered both doses of the vaccine. The union territory has a total population of 4 lakh people.

Meanwhile, the Information, Publicity and Tourism, secretary of Andaman and Nicobar administration, S K Singh in a press conference on Friday said that it is encouraging to see COVID-19 cases are starting to fall due to lockdown restrictions.

"Signs of marginal dip in the number of COVID-19 positive case are visible but the rate of reduction is slow and we cannot be complacent until the islands are free from the virus," he said.

"We cannot relax as the drop in cases is slow and the numbers could quickly move the other way if we are careless", the secretary said.

Singh urged the people to follow COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated.

He said strict action will be taken against those violating the COVID-19 protocol.