COVID-19: Tripura to start discharging patients with mild symptoms

Agartala: The first batch of the COVID-19 positive patients in Tripura will be released on Tuesday, as per new guidelines issued by the Union ministry of health and family welfare, said additional chief secretary SK Rakesh in Agartala on Sunday.

According to the new discharge policy, those patients having mild symptoms and asymptomatic ones can be released with advice for home quarantine of another seven days before going out in public.

“The first two BSF jawans who had tested positive on May 2 are now eligible to be released by day after tomorrow. We hope from Tuesday onwards, the existing BSF personnel and their family members would be discharged from the hospital and care centres,” SK Rakesh said.

Currently, 132 patients are being treated in different hospitals and COVID-19 centres in the state. There are 87 patients admitted at Govind Ballabh Pant (GBP) COVID-19 hospital, 44 in Shaheed Bhagat Singh COVID care centre.

Speaking further, he said that the guidelines of the health ministry says that there is no need for a test if anybody is asymptomatic and has mild symptoms. The BSF jawans would be placed under quarantine in the BSF headquarters. A meeting would be held on Monday to decide if the state government would conduct the tests or not.

“A total of 450 samples are being tested and with this, the samples testing of all the BSF personnel and their family members in 86th and 138th battalion will be over. In other parts, surveillance and collection of samples are going on. A total of 28 samples were collected from Dhalai district, including those of 20 civilians,” Rakesh added.

He also said that the present ratio of tests per million in Tripura stands at 2,272 per million, which is the fifth-highest in India.

“We have held a meeting all eight district magistrates for declaring one COVID care centre within each district. In the next three days they will do the needful, while Gomati district has already declared one building close to the district hospital as COVID care centre,” Rakesh said.

He also said that ministry of health and family welfare has agreed to the request for sending National centre for communicable diseases control (NCCD) to conduct an inquiry and help the state government in tracing out the source of the virus. The date of the arrival of (NCCD) team in Agartala will soon be decided after a meeting on Monday.

Talking about the number of people who returned to the state on Sunday, Rakesh said that a total of 368 persons entered Tripura through Churaibari check post, including 173 truck drivers, 15 patients and 172 stranded persons.

“On Sunday, 99 persons left from Tripura for Rajasthan in the same buses in which Tripura students from Kota, Rajasthan had returned. Around 1,200 persons stranded in Karnataka have boarded the train en-route to Tripura and they would reach the state by Tuesday night or Wednesday Morning,” Rakesh added.

Another train from Chennai will start on Tuesday with around 1,140 passengers. The train coming from Karnataka has charged us Rs 12.78 lakh which was paid by the government of Tripura, he said.

Earlier this afternoon, additional chief secretary visited Churaibari check post in North Tripura district and took stock of the situation there. During his visit, he visited the two quarantine centres — Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and sports complex at Panisagar where the people with symptoms are being quarantined.

The administration has identified three hotels for people who do not wish to stay at the quarantine centre. They would require paying an amount of Rs 500, Rs 800 and Rs 1,000 per night including meal.

Meanwhile, 11 quarantine centres have been identified in West Tripura district for those passengers travelling from other states.