36 children of 2 Tripura orphanages test Covid-19 positive

Thirty-six girls, aged between 5 and 16 years, in two orphanages in the Tripura state capital have tested positive for Covid-19, a minister said on Monday.

All of them are in a stable condition and are in isolation within the orphanages, a senior official said.

Thirty-two children at the Jawaharlal Nehru Girls Home at Narsingarh tested positive for coronavirus while four cases were detected at Ujan Abhoynagar Childrens Home, state Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath said.

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"A girl who fell ill at the Jawaharlal Nehru Girls Home tested positive for Covid-19. After conducting tests, 31 more children were found to be coronavirus positive", Nath, who is also the Cabinet spokesperson, said.

Later, Covid-19 tests were conducted on girls at the Ujan Abhoynagar Children's Home, where four samples tested positive for the infection, the minister said.

"The children are under proper treatment", Nath said.

The Director of Family Welfare and Preventive Medicines, Dr. Radha Debbarma said, after girls of the two orphanages got infected, the government, as a precautionary measure, has taken the initiative to conduct Covid-19 tests on children living in other orphanages.

"In the second wave, children are also testing positive for the virus. We are monitoring the situation, and all the homes have been asked to take measures to prevent infections," State Covid-19 Surveillance Officer Dr. Deep Debbarma said.

Meanwhile, at least 335 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Tripura on Monday, pushing the tally to 40,816, a health department official said.

The Covid-19 death toll rose to 438 after 10 more patients succumbed to the infection.

Tripura currently has 4,561 active coronavirus cases, while 35,756 people have recovered from the disease.

So far, 58 patients have migrated to other states, while three Covid-19 infected people died by suicide.