Island Where Visitors Risk Death Is One Of Last 'Covid Free' Places On Earth

Ever since the unprecedented pandemic hit us all like a tonne of bricks, the virus has travelled all around the world, with their being very few places left unscathed.

North Sentinel is a small island - about the size of New York's Manhattan Island. It is part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and administratively part of India.

It's estimated that the island could comfortably support between 80 and 150 people, but there could be as few as 15 or as many as 500 people living on it.

North Sentinel is off the track of main shipping routes, in the Bay of Bengal - with no natural harbours.

Protective laws also mean people can't visit them and the tribe also fiercely protect their home from outsiders. 

They also have their own language that even people from other Andaman groups can't understand, due to them being isolated for so long.

North Sentinel Island hit headlines for the wrong reasons and back in 2018.

An American missionary, called John Allen Chau travelled to the island with the intention of converting the people who live there to Christianity.

However, after the 27-year-old paid a fisherman to help him get across to the island, it became apparent he was killed by the locals once he'd arrived there.

A spokesperson for International Christian Concern said: "We here at International Christian Concern are extremely concerned by the reports of an American missionary being murdered in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to both John's family and friends.

"A full investigation must be launched in this murder and those responsible must be brought to justice."

The tribe is generally left alone and, due to their isolation, they are likely to be highly susceptible to disease and infection because they haven't developed immunity.

Human rights group Survival International have previously called for strict protections to ensure outsiders stay away from the island.

The campaign group said: "They [The Sentinelese] vigorously reject all contact with outsiders.

"It is vital that their wish to remain uncontacted is respected - if not, the entire tribe could be wiped out by diseases to which they have no immunity. Contact imposed upon other Andaman tribes has had a devastating impact."