Agartala: Another 30 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 including 25 persons from 86th Bn of BSF, four family members from 138th BSF bn from Dhalai district of Tripura and one truck driver whose samples were collected from Churaibari checkpost on Friday.
With this, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state has risen to 118 so far. A total of 103 BSF jawans have tested positive in the last five days, first 12 and then 13 cases on two consecutive days, then 22 on Wednesday, followed by 24 on Thursday. These also include seven family members a mess worker and a truck driver.
Taking to Twitter, chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb announced this development, “Alert! 30 persons found #COVID19 POSITIVE in Tripura today. 25 persons from 86th-Bn #BSF, 4 family members from 138th-Bn #BSF & 1 truck driver.
Total #COVID19 patients in Tripura now stands: 118
Active cases: 116
Discharged: 02
Stay Safe!
#TripuraCovid19Count”
ALERT !
30 persons found #COVID19 POSITIVE in Tripura today. 25 persons from 86th-Bn #BSF, 4 family members from 138th-Bn #BSF & 1 truck driver.
Total #COVID19 patients in Tripura now stands: 118
⏩Active cases: 116
⏩Discharged: 02Stay Safe !#TripuraCovid19Count
— Biplab Kumar Deb (@BjpBiplab) May 8, 2020
Earlier this evening, additional chief secretary SK Rakesh said that the government has decided to convert the Saheed Bhagat Singh youth hostel into a COVID-19 treatment centre from Saturday if more positive cases are reported in the state.
“All the persons having mild symptoms or under asymptomatic category would be placed in that 300-bedded COVID-19 treatment centre. If required the number of beds can be increased in the hostel. This will run parallel with other facilities of COVID-19 related cases”, Rakesh said.
He also said that among the 24 positives case reported on Thursday, one sample was of a sub-inspector from the 3rd battalion who was posted in Dhalaighat BOP, while rest of them were from 86th battalion of BSF.
“On Friday the Dhalaighat BOP in Kamalpur was announced as containment zone and the contacts are being traced in both the BOP and the 3rd battalion having their headquarters in Nalkata”, Rakesh added.
Collection of samples in both 138th and 86th battalion has been completed. The samples of family members of the jawans in the 138th battalion family members has also been collected. At the 86th bn samples of 27 family members were collected on Friday. A total of over 1200 samples have been collected from Dhalai district after the first patients tested positive.
Interestingly, earlier on May 6 out of the 378 samples collected in connection with the first patient, all of them had tested negative, but the jawan from the 3rd battalion who was posted in the BOP since March 14 tested positive.
At the Kamalpur containment zone, around 4800 people are under self-quarantine and surveillance is being done in the area.
“We are in touch with the National Centre for communicable diseases (NCCD) and we have requested them to come to Tripura and do their investigation and analysis so that we can have a better appreciation of the situation”, Rakesh added.
As per the directives, swabs samples of all the 75 BSF personnel of the BOP and three health workers who came into contact with the positive patient at Kamalpur hospital during his short stay was collected on Friday.
He also said that samples from the other BSF battalions will also be collected on a random basis. While in a meeting chaired by the chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb in presence of IG, BSF where inputs on the source of spread were shared and the detailed report would be placed soon.
On Friday samples 45 samples were collected from Gandacherra sub-division which included samples of two civilian and 19 samples from Ginarai BOP and 24 samples from forward Ginaria BOP.
Under Bhagirath ADC village two places—Ginarai para and Bhagirath Para have been declared as containment zones by the district administration. The first positive patient visited the Ginarai BOP on 24th March.
The state’s first positive case was reported on April 6 after a 45-year-old woman from Gomati district tested positive with travel history to Guwahati in Assam. Meanwhile, the second case was reported on April 10, after a Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawan tested positive for the deadly coronavirus. Both the positive patients have travel history by the same train on April 19.
Meanwhile, a total of 13,244 persons have been placed under quarantine so far in the state out of which 11544 were released after their 14-day observational period.
Samples of 8,091 persons have been collected out of which 7,448 have been tested and 89 tested positive. Two persons have recovered and one was shifted in West Bengal.
