AGARTALA, May 8 - The COVID-19 pandemic scenario has worsened in Tripura with 24 more jawans of the 86th Battalion of the BSF testing positive last night. The headquarters of the 86th Battalion of the BSF shares a plot of land with the headquarters of the 138th Battalion of the border guarding force at Jawaharnagar under the Ambassa subdivision of Dhalai district.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, in a Facebook post, confirmed the detection of 24 more COVID-19-positive cases on Thursday night.
It is suspected that there has been a transmission of the virus from infected jawans of the 138th Battalion to those of the 86th Battalion as their respective headquarters lie in close proximity. The development has put the State on the edge as the number of COVID-19 patients in the State has shot up all of a sudden. However, there has been no outbreak of the disease among the local villagers so far.
But the possibility of community transmission cannot be ruled out in view of the sudden spike in the number of positive cases, informed sources said.
Meanwhile, the Tripura Government has declared the Kamalpur subdivision adjacent to Bangladesh as a containment zone as a COVID-19-positive BSF jawan attached to the 86th Battalion, was posted at the Dhalai BOP recently. With this, four locations within Dhalai district have been declared as containment zones, in which public movement has been completely banned.
Official sources said that the newly-infected BSF jawans were taken to the GB Pant Hospital from Ambassa this evening.
At present, 85 BSF personnel are admitted to the COVID-19 unit of the GB Pant Hospital. One patient � a child � is being treated in the BSF Frontier Hospital at Salbagan. With the latest count, the State has so far registered 88 COVID-19-positive cases. Out of them, two have already been discharged from hospital after treatment.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Deb claimed that Tripura is well equipped to handle the situation arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak in the two BSF battalions headquartered at Jawaharnagar.
�The facilities which have been put in place to treat COVID-19 patients at the GB Pant Hospital are adequate. It is certain that the novel coronavirus will not disappear from the State immediately. We have to battle against it and ensure its defeat,� he said.
The Chief Minister was speaking to media persons on the sidelines of a Rabindra Jayanti programme at the Vivekananda Udyan here today.
�I have already spoken to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and briefed them on the State�s situation in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak. They assured me of giving full support in the battle against the pandemic,� Deb added.
