Tripura govt sounds alarm bells after three coronavirus strains found in the state

The Tripura government has sounded an alert after the double mutant strain of coronavirus and those of Britain and South African variants were found in the state, officials said on Friday.

The state government has decided to hold full-fledged virus tests for passengers entering the state via airways, railways and roadways, and quarantine those infected among them, the officials said.

Immediately after receiving the test results of outsiders, Tripura health secretary J K Sinha held a virtual meeting on Thursday with district magistrates, superintendents of police, and the chief medical officers of all the eight districts, and asked them to take all precautions and strictly maintain the Covid-19 norms, officials said.

Director of Health, Radha Debbarma and professor of microbiology of Agartala Government Medical College, Tapan Majumder said that 19 samples collected from coronavirus infected persons were sent outside Tripura for advanced virological tests. Of them, 17 samples were found to be infected with highly infectious and deadly virus strains of Covid-19.

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Of the 17 infectious samples, 11 were found to be infected with the double mutant variant that devastated Maharashtra; five were of the British strain; and one strain of South African origin.

So people should strictly adhere to all Covid norms for safety, Majumder told reporters on Friday. Siddhartha Shiva Jaiswal, director of the state National Health Mission said that in the second wave, people aged between 20 and 40 years are the most affected by the coronavirus in Tripura.

Of the 665 people who tested positive for coronavirus till April 23, a total 50.79 per cent of them were between the ages of 20 and 40, he said.

Jaiswal said that children below 10 years are also being infected by the virus but people in their sixties are relatively protected from Covid-19.

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A total of 8.39 lakh people of the state have taken the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, which is 24 per cent of the state's population and is much higher than the national average of just six per cent.

Meanwhile, at least 166 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Tripura on Friday pushing the tally in the state to 35,169, a health department official said.

The death toll remained at 393 as no one succumbed to the infection.

Tripura currently has 1,020 active coronavirus cases, while 33,555 people have recovered from the disease, the official said.