Experts’ team from Centre arrives in Tripura, visits COVID-hit areas

Agartala: An experts’ team from the Centre, deputed to assist Tripura in fighting the novel coronavirus and managing the outbreak, on Tuesday started visiting areas reporting a high number of COVID-19 cases.

The team comprising Dr RN Sinha, director of the All India Institute of Public Health and Hygiene, and Dr Ranganath TG, assistant professor in the department of pulmonologist at AIIMS, is here on a three-day visit.

During the second wave of COVID-19, West Tripura has been at the forefront of reporting a high number of cases. Infections are also on the rise in South Tripura, North Tripura and Unakoti districts. As a result, the team is expected to visit those districts as well.

A health official from the state government told EastMojo that the Centre has deputed experts’ teams to some of the states which have reported high number of COVID-19 cases and also to help states prepare and manage the outbreak efficiently.

“The Delta variant is being reported in several parts of the country, including Northeast India. Tripura needs to be prepared for the spread of the new variant. The experts’ team will suggest ways to deal with this highly-transmissible variant,” the health official said.

Also read | ‘Suspicious’ death of Dimapur residents: TIPRA chairman Pradyot expresses concern

Meanwhile, the experts’ team on Tuesday visited West Tripura district to review the situation and arrangements made by the state health department. The team will place the report before the health ministry at the end of the visit.

Earlier, during the first wave of the virus, the centre had deputed an experts’ team to review the situation and investigate the outbreak of the coronavirus at the BSF camp in Dhalai district.

Currently, the state has a total of 3,488 active COVID-19 after 226 persons tested positive for the coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The state has so far reported 694 COVID-19 deaths with a mortality rate of 1.02 per cent. A total of 67,677 people have tested positive, of which 63,429 have recovered from the coronavirus.