Tablighi link to 9 of 10 Andaman Coronavirus cases

With a spike in Covid-19 cases, Andaman & Nicobar administration is frantically scaling up its tracing and testing facilities, and has approached the Centre for more supplies including sanitisers and ventilators to contain the spread of the infection.
The group of islands that is home to at least five endangered tribes has so far reported 10 positive cases of the Covid-19. They include nine Islamic preachers who took part in the Delhi Nizamuddin Markaz, organised by Tableeghi Jamaat, in mid-March, and wife of one of them.

The group of preachers had spent a month in Visakhapatnam, and places in Andhra Pradesh before arriving in Delhi on March 16.

Nine members of the group returned to Port Blair on March 24 and were tested, and found positive. Four other preachers in the group who had stayed back in Delhi, too, have been tested positive and are undergoing treatment in Delhi's RML hospital.

On Tuesday, four persons, all part of Tableeghi Jamaat were tested positive in Visakhapatnam.

“in A&N, our biggest challenge is to contain the spread, to ensure it doesn't go to the islands and is restricted to Port Blair,” medical nodal officer Avijit Roy said. “We are already on the third level of tracing of the contacts of the positive cases."

He said the administration had started screening all people arriving at the airport from March 9.

Paluru Vijayachari, director of Regional Medical Research Centre (ICMR) in Port Blair, said “it can be very challenging if the virus infects the low immunity tribes”. The region lacks advanced medical facilities to deal with specific complications related with the central nervous system, or cardio-vascular diseases. “Control and containment is the only option,” he told ET.

Vijayachari said all the 33 cases tested before the group of preachers were negative.

In Port Blair, the administration has already launched district containment plan under which it is screening all residents in a radius of three kilometres from residence of confirmed cases. Here are 255 people in government-administered quarantine facilities, while 1,505 people have been quarantined in their homes, and nearly 324 are quarantined in 11 hotels situated across the island.

“A special team has been formed and has been monitoring the situation round the clock,” a person aware of the development said on condition of anonymity.

The government machinery is keeping a strict vigil on the movement of people. To restrict movement, the administration had taken some measures including shutting petrol pumps even before the lockdown.

Officials said two patients had specifically not been clear with disclosing all their contacts. "They are being counselled repeatedly," an official said.

The administration on Tuesday chartered an Air India cargo flight to transport some essential medical supplies, including masks, PPEs, sanitisers, sodium hypochlorite and bleaching powder, to the islands, an official said. This was the second consignment to arrive in the last few days.

TRIBES SENSITIVE TO DISEASES
The islands are home to five of the most endangered tribes of the world – the Great Andamanese, Jarawas, Onge, Shompen and the Sentinelese. Most of whom have little or no contact with the mainstream population. The combined population of these tribes stands at around 900.

It is important to remember that the population of several tribes in this region has reduced drastically in the last many decades because of the outbreaks of various diseases such as measles and flu, said T Subramanyam Naidu, member of Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

“The measles outbreak among the Great Andamanese tribe in the middle of the 19th century had almost wiped out the entire population. We have less than 100 of them now,” he told ET.

At a time like this, it is important to monitor tourist hotspots, some densely populated areas of Port Blair and fishing markets that are still open, Naidu said.

“Also, the east coast of middle and south Andaman have a good number of migrants who travel… The Karens of Andamans are also small groups with overseas connection,” he said. “The Andaman Trunk Road that connects Port Blair with middle and south Andaman should also be monitored, as well as ship movement from cities. Areas such as Kadamtala where Jarawas are known to frequent need to be completely sealed.”

Meanwhile, the ten positive cases are quarantined in GB Pant hospital in Port Blair. “All the cases have flu like symptoms and do not require any aggressive treatment,” said one of the officials cited earlier.

While in Delhi, the Muslim preachers from Andaman were housed along with 1,400 preachers from 15 countries in a multi-storeyed transit facility for Tableeghi Jamaat members. In the last few days, six preachers who attended the Nizamuddin congregation have passed away after contracting Covid-19, including one each from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir. At least one foreign national who attended the meeting has died while 19 other foreigners have tested positive for the virus across the country so far.