The 1,702 new infections took the overall tally in the union territory to 93,167, Director of Health and Family Welfare Services S Mohan Kumar said. The 26 deaths took the toll to 1,295, he said adding 18 of the deceased had no comorbidities. He said as many as 2,017 patients were discharged from healthcare facilities during the last 24 hours ending 10 am on Friday, taking the cumulative recoveries to 73,936.

The number of active cases stood at 17,936 with 15,830 in home isolation and 2,106 in hospitals, he added. Mohan Kumar said the 1,702 new cases were identified at the end of the examination of 9,043 samples projecting a test positivity rate at 18.82 per cent. He said 9.62 lakh samples have been examined so far and it was found that 8.44 lakh turned out to be negative. The fatality and recovery rates were 1.39 per cent and 79.36 per cent respectively.