139 new cases push COVID-19 tally of Andamans to 1,764; death toll mounts to 21

The COVID-19 caseload of Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose to 1,764 on Wednesday as 139 more people tested positive for the infection, while one more fatality pushed its coronavirus death toll to 21, a health official said. All the new cases were detected during contact tracing, he said.

The fresh infections have pushed the number of active cases in the Union territory to 994, the official said. Forty more people have been cured of the disease, taking the total number of recoveries in the islands to 749, he said. A total of 67,828 tests per million have been conducted so far, the official said.

Meanwhile, 27 crew members of inter-island passenger ship 'M V Coral Queen' have tested positive for the infection, sources at the Directorate of Shipping Services said. The ship had left Port Blair for Little Andaman on July 30 and had returned the next day. However, all passengers and crew members have been quarantined on the ship anchored off the coast since then, they said.

Their samples were collected on August 3 and results returned on Wednesday, the sources said. Sanjay Kumar, the secretary of the local unit of the Sailors' Union of India, has demanded that the Directorate of Shipping Services provide medical kits to crew members of all the ships operating in the region.

He said 53 crew members and 10 passengers aboard the 'M V Nancovery' that had sailed from Chennai to Port Blair last month, had tested positive for COVID-19. Noting that the passengers and crew members of the 'M V Nancovery' have been home quarantined and some admitted to hospitals, Kumar appealed to the islanders to avoid travelling by ships for the time being.