Jimmy Leivon , Debraj Deb: In the beginning of May, when the country was entering the third phase of the lockdown, the colour-coded classification set by the central government put almost all of Northeast entirely in the green zone, reflecting only a handful of reported cases: 43 in Assam and 2 in Tripura.
Cut to June, the region accounts for more than 5,000 cases — with Assam taking the lead, followed by Tripura, with Manipur not far behind. A significant chunk of this surge can be traced back entirely to returnees, or those who have come back to their home states after the opening up of inter-state borders on May 17. While Assam has reported cases since April 1 and is now the most affected state with its current tally at 3,693 (2,098 active), the other states, too, are witnessing a considerable rise every day. A look at Tripura, the surge and how they are coping.
TRIPURA
Tripura, which reported its first COVID-19 case in April, has shot up over a 1,000 cases till date, out of which 686 are active patients. While 163 of these patients came from Border Security Force (BSF) jawans, the rest are returnees from Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and other places, where they were stranded for two months during the lockdown.
Earlier this month, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb cited a National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) report and said that the virus spread aggressively among BSF barracks since the border guards failed to maintain social distancing and quarantine norms in their battalions.
The state government has extended its healthcare apparatus to handle COVID-19 patients. Govind Ballabh Panth Hospital at Agartala, which is also the only authorised coronavirus testing facility in Tripura, initially had 40 beds but was later beefed up to accommodate 100. Twelve Covid Care Centres (CCC) have come up later, four of them at Agartala and the rest across eight districts of the state with a cumulative strength of 1,315 isolation beds. Tripura’s various quarantine centres have a cumulative capacity to hold 1,800 patients. However, the total number of people placed under surveillance in the state is far higher. Naturally, the government has opted to focus more on home quarantine. As per latest reports, 9,795 persons are currently under surveillance, of whom 93 per cent are under home quarantine. Tripura’s high numbers can also be attributed to its testing rate — the highest rate proportionate to the population in the NE region. The state government claims to have tested 42,841 persons till date at the rate of 9,359 tests per million. Source:indianexpress
