No new COVID-19 case in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Port Blair, March 11 dmanewsdesk:  Andaman and Nicobar Islands did not report any new COVID-19 case in the last 24 hours, while two more patients recovered from the disease during the period, a health department official said on Thursday.

The coronavirus tally in the archipelago remained at 5,028, he said.

The Union Territory now has six active cases, and 4,960 people have recovered from the disease so far.

The death toll stood at 62 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported on Wednesday, the official said.

Altogether, 10,474 health and frontline workers have been inoculated, while 1,416 people above 45 years of age have received the vaccine shots so far, he said.

Despite an inflow of tourists into the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the overall coronavirus situation is under control in the archipelago, the official said.

The local administration has been strict to ensure that health safety protocols are followed to contain the spread of the disease, he said.

A total of 2,85,087 sample tests for COVID-19 have been conducted so far in the Union Territory, and the positivity rate stands at 1.76 per cent.

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 tourism industry, which was severely hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has started witnessing a steady inflow of travellers into the archipelago as all the major tourist destinations in the islands have been opened, the official said.

The islands remained coronavirus-free till the first week of June last year. The first case in the Union Territory was detected on June 10, 2020.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported its first COVID- 19 death on July 27 last year.

Source: PTI