Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb tests positive for COVID-19

Agartala: Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Wednesday confirmed that he has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

“I have been tested positive for Covid-19. I have isolated myself at home as per the advice of doctors. I request everyone to please follow all the covid appropriate behaviour and stay safe,” Deb tweeted.

This comes barely three days after the Tripura governments took initiatives and issued guidelines with certain restrictions following the second wave of the COVID-19.

Speaking with reporters, West Tripura district health officer Dr Sangeeta Chakraborty said that the CM had symptoms of COVID-19 positive following which the samples were collected on Wednesday, the results of which came positive in Antigen test. “We have collected the samples for RT-PCR test for reconfirmation of the report and it will be confirmed shortly,” Chakraborty said.

Earlier on August 4 last year, two of Deb’s family members had tested positive for the virus.

This is the first case of any VIP testing positive for the virus in the second wave of the COVID-19. Recently, CM Deb had been in between the crowd campaigning for the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) election which underwent voting on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a total of 6,46,189 samples have tested, out of which 33,554 tested positive with 389 deaths, 70 active cases and 33,069 recovered cases so far.

Also read: Not Left or Right: Watch Pradyot Deb talk TTAADC polls in an exclusive interview