7 more test positive for COVID-19 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, total cases rise to 29

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Seven more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, taking the total number of cases in the Union Territory to 29, an official said on Saturday. All of them are residents of the Bambooflat area in the south Andaman district, he said. "Of the new cases, six are from one family, and all of them came in contact with a COVID-19 patient detected earlier," the official said.

All the patients are undergoing treatment at the GB Pant Hospital here, a health department official said. Five cases were reported from the Bambooflat area on Thursday.

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

Of the total cases reported in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, home to several vulnerable tribes, 18 are active now. Eleven persons -- 10 with links to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi and a student who travelled on a flight with some of them -- have recovered from the disease. A total of 2,679 samples have so far been sent to the Regional Medical Research Centre here for tests, and of these, results of 2,433 have come while 246 are awaited, the health department official said.

The department has so far received 3,800 rapid test kits from the Centre, he said. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration has set up an isolation centre at the GB Pant Hospital with 50 beds, and a total of 961 people are now in quarantine centres, the official said. The Union Territory administration has adopted the "pool testing" method using less kits for more tests in the fight against novel coronavirus.

The local administration has urged people to stay at home and follow the lockdown order imposed to contain the outbreak of the dreaded virus.