AGARTALA, May 27 - At least 23 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Tripura last night, taking the total number of positive cases in the State to 232 till date. The active cases now stand at 65 as 165 patients have already been discharged from hospitals after recovery. Two patients have migrated.
Out of the total patients confirmed on Tuesday night, 18 had come from Mumbai and the remaining five had been contacts of the Mumbai returnees, official sources said. As many as 48 positive cases have been found among those who had returned from Mumbai on May 21.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb today asked all panchayat secretaries and village councils to set up at least one institutional quarantine centre each in their respective areas.
�Authorities concerned will maintain proper hygiene in these centres. If required, any quarantined person will be shifted to hospital immediately. I believe these centres will play an important role to contain the transmission of COVID-19,� Deb said through a teleconference.
Soon after confirmation of the new cases, the district surveillance teams swung into action and took the new patients to the COVID Care Centre at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Hostel here.
Alarmed at the spike in COVID-19 cases across the State, the Government is now mulling to conduct tests on all persons returning to the State from COVID-19 hotspots like Mumbai, Delhi and West Bengal.
�The special train had ferried 1,154 persons who were stranded in Mumbai and 899 samples have already been collected for COVID-19 tests. Swabs from the remaining 255 Mumbai returnees have already been collected,� said a senior official today.
The Government has decided to conduct COVID-19 tests on all 105 persons who are scheduled to return to the State from Bangladesh tomorrow.
A total of 23,376 samples have been collected so far, while results are available for 22,049. As many as 10,355 persons have been placed under quarantine � 330 under facility quarantine � till date.
On the Central team�s report on the COVID-19 outbreak at Jawaharnagar in Dhalai district, the official said that Additonal Chief Secretary SK Rakesh has already submitted a report to the Chief Minister on Tuesday. �The findings are now with the Chief Minister,� he added.
Meanwhile, the Director of the MBB Airport here, VK Seth, has informed the State Government that the issue of resuming flight services has been taken at the highest level. The flight services could not resume at the MBB Airport on May 25 due to the West Bengal Government�s decision to keep flight operations suspended till May 31 in the aftermath of the devastation caused by Cyclone Amphan.
