Virus strikes at isolated tribes on Indian Ocean islands

FOUR members of a remote tribe living on India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands have tested positive for Covid-19, sparking fears for the group’s survival.

There are as few as 53 members of the Greater Andamanese tribe and they have limited immunity to viruses due to their isolated location.

The tribe numbered more than 5,000 back in the 1850s but when the British colonised the islands, successive outbreaks of diseases such as measles caused the population to plummet.

Two of the Great Andamanese who have tested positive have been taken to hospital and two more have been quarantined in a care centre.

“It is extremely alarming that members of the Great Andamanese tribe tested positive for Covid-19,” said Sophie Grigg, a senior researcher at Survival International, an NGO campaigning for tribal people.

“They will be all too aware of the devastating impact of epidemics that have decimated their people.”

Health workers who tested the Greater Andamanese on their home of Strait Island believe members of the tribe may have contracted Covid-19 after travelling for work to the capital of the archipelago, Port Blair.

The Andaman Islands generally have recorded 2,985 Covid-19 cases so far but the virus is surging, with the highest reproduction, or R value, out of India’s 36 union territories and states.

The Greater Andamanese is one of five vulnerable tribes on the islands and the authorities are trying to take urgent steps to protect them.