COVID-19: BSF Jawan from Assam's Sivasagar Tests Corona Positive in Tripura

Agartala, May 2, 2020:

The Border Security Force (BSF) head constable who has been tested positive for the COVID-19 and is supposedly a carrier, reached Tripura from Sivasagar district in Assam on March 11 last, Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath, who also happens to be the cabinet spokesperson, told media yesterday.

Inside Northeast has just received confirmation that the jawan is a resident of Nowpara village in Sivasagar district.

Briefing about the latest detection of the virus in the state, Nath informed that altogether 68 close contacts of the head constable have already been identified and the process of tracing contacts is going on.

Nath has further disclosed that the head constable was posted at 138 Battalion Jaharnagar Ambasaa in Dhalai district. He reached his head quarters on March 11 last, where he remained till March 22. Later, he joined field duty at Garina Gandacherra Border Outpost and stayed there since April 25, when he reported back to his headquarters.

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On April 26, he got admitted to Dhalai district hospital with complaints of stomachache, and was referred to the GBP hospital on May 1.

"In GBP hospital, he was admitted to the flu section and was subjected to a swab test today. His reports came positive and he has now been shifted to the COVID section for treatment”, Nath told reporters.

Nath also revealed that the second patient, a BSF constable who had also tested positive was his hospital attendant in Dhalai hospital and later got admitted himself.

“The second patient the BSF constable was the hospital attendant of the first patient, but he later got admitted in the hospital and the same procedure followed”, Nath said.

Meanwhile, in Udaipur, 76 persons have been identified as close contacts of the family that had arrived from Tamil Nadu in an ambulance that was being driven by the coronavirus positive driver. Samples of the family have been collected once again for testing. Nath also added that the samples of the Baikhora family which also arrived by the same ambulance have not reached Agartala yet, but 14 close contacts have been zeroed in for testing.

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Giving details on the arrival of stranded Tripura citizens, he said, today altogether 382 people have arrived in the state and only 11 persons were found to be hailing from red zone locations.

Responding to a query on the COVID-19 ambulance driver who had recently visited Tripura, he said that the ambulance driver is undergoing treatment at North Bengal medical college and the his co-driver, who has not tested positive, is currently quarantined in Siliguri in West Bengal.

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