5 test positive for COVID-19 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, active cases rise to 11

Five people tested positive for COVID-19 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Thursday, taking the total number of active cases in the Union territory to 11, officials said. All of them are residents of Bambooflat in the South Andaman district, they said.

Last week, a 39-year-old police radio operator had tested positive for COVID-19 in the area, which has now been declared a hotspot, and all the fresh cases are either his family members or related to him, the officials said.

They mainly belong to the Mopla community of Kerala and their forefathers settled here decades ago, they said.

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The five new cases include three males and two females aged between 25 and 35, said Avijit Roy, nodal officer for COVID-19 in  Portblair.

A total of 160 people from Bambooflat are quarantined at different hotels in Dollygunge and other areas. Their samples were sent for testing and the reports have started coming in, according to the officials.

Colleagues of the police radio operator have also been kept under observation, the officials said.

All the patients are undergoing treatment at G B Pant Hospital here, Roy said.

A total of 22 cases have so far been detected in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, home to several vulnerable tribes. Eleven of them -- 10 with links to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi and a student who travelled on a flight with some of them -- have recovered.

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