Ambulance driver from Chennai who came to Tripura tests COVID-19 positive

GUWAHATI: Ambulance driver who came to Tripura from Chennai has tested coronavirus positive.

Education and law minister of Tripura Ratan Lal Nathtold reporters, “The infected driver is not in Tripura now. He left the state on April 28 and is now in Siliguri.”

This information has been passed to the Bengal government, he said.

The driver along with another driver had brought five passengers to the state from Chennai.

One driver whose sample was collected on April 28 and the results of the sample which came out today is positive but rest all have tested negative. The arrivals are all in quarantine facility and their health is being monitored. informed the minister.

Meanwhile, in a major step to tame the coronavirus, a mobile COVID-19 sample collection kiosk has been designed under the Agartala Smart City project and if successful, more such kiosks would be developed, top officials said on Wednesday.

The newly designed mobile kiosk, first in the eastern and the Northeast, was handed over to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of West Tripura district on Tuesday and it already started collection of samples of the people.

“The kiosk ensures protection to the sample collecting health worker and prevents wastage of personal protection equipment (PPE). This initiative is a major step by Agartala Smart City project in the fight against Covid-19,” Tripura government’s Additional Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar Rakesh told IANS.

He said that if the mobile sample collection kiosk achieves the desired goal and if we get a good feedback from the ground level health workers, we would replicate this more and deploy them in other districts and subdivisions. “There is no need for patients to come to the hospital for giving sample. The mobile kiosk can go to the doorstep of the patient or any locality to collect the samples as and when the health authority decides,” said Rakesh, who also looks after the Health and Family Welfare Department.

Agartala Smart City Limited (ASCL) Chairman Gitte Kirankumar Dinkarrao said the kiosk was built on an old three wheeler vehicle at a cost of Rs 85,000 and it can navigate through narrow lanes and by-lanes of the city to facilitate collection of samples from the community itself.

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