Vikramaditya
Port Blair, July 31: Andaman and Nicobar Islands are witnessing a huge spike in COVID-19 cases which has created panic among people of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Today as many as 78 new cases have been detected out of which 56 are travelers and 22 are contacts. However 13 people have recovered today. With this total number of COVID19 cases in Andaman stands at 548, out of which 329 are active and 214 people have recovered. Altogether seven people have died because of COVID19 till now but administration record is showing that number of death is only five.
When contacted a senior officer of Health Department on the conditions of anonymity said that if all precautions are taken and if things are controlled well, it will take nearly 14 days to bring the situation back in control.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha the senior officer of Health Department today said that 18 ventilators are already installed at G B Pant Hospital, which is sufficient for now because nearly 5% patients only require ventilators. He said that now two ICUs are being set up only for COVID19 patients.
Talking about the deaths due to COVID19, he said that first three cases had kidney and other serious problems and one patient had uncontrollable hypertension, which are the main cause of death, of course COVID19 infection caused more problem.
Regarding two deaths today he said that first case the patient was earlier admitted in Pillar Hospital for some other reason after which he was tested positive for COVID19 positive and today he was shifted to G B Pant where he died, the G B Pant did not get time to treat him. “In second case the old patient was brought dead and after death of patient when rapid test was conducted he was found COVID19 positive. Nobody knew that he is COVID19 positive,” he said.
Regarding delay in handing over the body, he said that PBMC was informed about shifting the body but if PBMC delays, Health Department can’t help.
A large number of people strongly believe that the decision to allow people from mainland inside Andaman Nicobar Island without institutional quarantine or proper test resulted in the sudden increase in COVID-19 cases in Andaman Nicobar islands which ultimately led to the deaths of 7 people.
Many Islanders are now strongly expressing their anguish over this issue in social media. After public anger and growing number of cases, finally the Administration seems to have woken up and now has taking several measures to control COVID-19 cases.
Whether these steps will be sufficient to bring the COVID19 cases under control is not yet known to anyone. However, real responsibility lies on general public to maintain social distancing, wear mask and wash hands regularly.
