Tourists from across the country are waiting to hear from the Andaman and Nicobar administration on lifting of curbs imposed on travel to the islands since early this month when the Omicron variant of the novel Coronavirus spiked Covid cases across the country, and promoted restrictions.

Many tourists had booked their tickets for the islands for the end of January, keeping in line with the peak tourist season.

“We had planned for a trip in the end of January. Does anyone know if the resorts are allowing for any refund because of lockdown,” asked a Hyderabad resident on a tourism portal.

A couple from Gurgaon too had a similar query. Neither of them has received any answers yet.

Another tourist has her tickets booked for February 1 and wants to know if she should cancel the trip.

On January 11, the South Andaman district magistrate had ordered a blanket ban on all tourism related activities in the islands till further orders. The same order did mention that the restrictions would be in effect till January 31.

Till Sunday, Andaman had 9,777 confirmed cases, with 2,049 cases recorded since early January. The silver lining for the islands is that there has been no death from Covid in these 30 days.

“Unlike other big cities in the country, medical resources in the islands are limited and the administration cannot put the lives of the islanders at risk, especially when it is aware of its limitations,” said a tour operator based in Port Blair. “The tour operators and everyone else connected with the tourism industry have requested the administration to lift the curbs. There has been no response so far.”

In 2019, just before the Covid pandemic struck, Andamand and Nicobar Islands had received its highest number of visitors in a year. As many as 505,398.