Fishermen off Port Blair in the Indian Ocean (picture from 2007): The indigenous people of the Andaman Islands inhabit the more remote islands
Photo: Aijaz Rahi / APThe coronavirus has broken out in the small indigenous people of the Great Andaman people in India. According to the authorities on Thursday, ten indigenous people from the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean have tested positive so far. Four of them are being treated in a hospital, the six others were sent to quarantine at home and have already recovered.
About 50 Great Andamans still live on the Adamane island of Straight Island, and they are supplied by the Indian government.
According to anthropologists and activists, there were more than 5,000 Great Andamans before the arrival of British settlers on the archipelago in the 19th century. Hundreds of them were killed in fighting with the British, and thousands more died of imported diseases such as measles, flu and syphilis.
On Sunday, Indian authorities sent health officials to Straight Island after six Great Andamans tested positive for the coronavirus. The six who tested positive were in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman Islands. Some Greater Andamans work there.
On Straight Island, officials then tested 37 other Great Andamanians, four of whom were infected, health official Avijit Ray told AFP.
India's government wants to step up protective measures
The Indian government has now announced that it will step up protective measures for the Greater Andaman and other indigenous peoples such as the isolated Jarawa and Sentinelese. Poachers invade the habitat of indigenous peoples again and again, although this is strictly forbidden.
In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where a total of around 400,000 people live, a total of 2268 corona infections and 37 deaths have been recorded so far. In all of India, the authorities have so far recorded around 60,000 deaths - making the world's second most populous country third after the USA and Brazil.
Icon: The mirrorkko / AFP