Tripura to start testing with 'Antigen kits' for faster results

Agartala: The Tripura cabinet on Tuesday decided to start testing all incoming passengers through flights, trains and buses using point of care antigen test kit (POCT) for COVID-19 said law minister Ratan Lal Nath.

Nath said that the state government has a requirement of 40,000 antigen detection kits, of which the state government has already received 15,000 kits.

“The health department will collect the swab samples of all the incoming passengers through the antigen kits, and within an hour, the reports will be made available. If the samples test positive, the person will be sent to a COVID care centre, and on testing negative they will be advised for home quarantine”, Nath said.

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The health workers will undergo training on how to use the POCT after which they will start collecting samples.

Currently, there are 28 containment zones in the state of which 13 are in Gomati, seven in Sepahijala, two in West, four in South and two in Dhalai district. A total of 7,629 people of 1,548 families residing in this area.

Nath says, many people with symptoms do not come to the hospital, so now the health workers will reach their homes and do the screening. Starting from the containment zones, this will be implemented across the state.

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“We will start collection samples through antigen kits from the containment zones and within one hour the reports will be handed over. After this week all the families across the state will be tested with the POCT kit”, Nath added.

The law minister also informed that contact history of 20 positive persons is yet to be ascertained. “The health department is working to trace how they got infected with the virus”, Nath said.

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Presently, 430 persons are undergoing treatment in different COVID care centres in the state, while 1,248 persons have been discharged after they recovered from the virus.

A total of 50,580 persons were placed under surveillance, out of which 44,419 persons were released after completion of 14 days’ observation period. Presently there are 300 persons in facility quarantine and 4,913 persons in-home quarantine as on Tuesday.

A total of 75,626 samples have been collected of which 74,207 have been tested. The positive rate stands at 2.28 percent.