Silchar, May 1: In a major development, out of 846 persons assigned for carrying out responsibilities for counting of votes for the seven LACs of Cachar district on May 2 at the NATRIP centre in Jhapirbandh here, at least 14 officials have been found to be COVID-19 positive during the mandatory Rapid Antigen Test(RAT) done on Friday and Saturday as well.
An official entrusted to look after the smooth conduct of the testing process for the counting officials at the Government Girls HS School informed that out of the 14 COVID-19 positive persons among the 846 officials who had been tested, seven were found positive on Friday while seven more were tested and found positive on Saturday.
"Of the 14, only one person had mild throat discomfort. We have sent the COVID-19 positive persons on home quarantine and asked them to inform the concerned authorities," the official said.
Reacting on the situation, Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli said ,"we are not issuing ID card without RAT negative report."
Meanwhile, sources in the DDIPR office informed that around 1,100 officials would be engaged in the counting of votes on Sunday.
