GANGTOK, June 14 - The number of COVID-19 cases in Sikkim has touched 63 with five new cases reported today.
According to the latest COVID-19 health bulletin issued by the Director General (DG)-cum-Secretary, of these five cases, two are from East district and three from West district. All of them were under institutional quarantine.
All the five persons, including two women, are reported to be asymptomatic and they have been shifted to the COVID-19 isolation ward of the STNM Hospital.
All the three quarantine centres where they were kept have been converted into containment zones.
All the primary contacts and persons placed in these quarantine centres have been tested, and all of them were reported to be negative.
The samples of the drivers of the 12 buses, which ferried the passengers who were tested positive in the past two days, have been sent for testing.
The samples of frontline workers lending their services at the borders and screening camps totalling about 190 are being tested.
On Friday, 50 people, mostly returnees from Mumbai, tested positive for COVID-19.
The Himalayan State was free from the novel coronavirus till a 25-year-old man, who had returned from Delhi, tested positive for the disease on May 23. The first COVID-19 patient of the State and four others have been cured and released from hospital.
A PTI report adds: The Sikkim government has deferred reopening of educational institutes by a month due to the COVID-19 outbreak and decided to resume classes in schools, colleges and universities in the first week of August this year, officials said.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting of the State Task Force presided over by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, they said.
The educational institutes in the State were supposed to reopen on July 1.
�There is a need for abundant precaution to resume educational activities in Sikkim in view of the spike in COVID-19 cases,� the officials said.
The reopening of all schools, colleges, universities and teacher education institutes would be in compliance with the UGC and the Central Government directives, they said.
Meanwhile, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had announced that the pending class 10 and 12 board examinations will be held from July 1 to 15.
