From Tuesday all the prescribed Covid protocols will be fully enforced across Tripura as there were an alarming surge in the Omicron (BA.2) infection- almost taking the new wave proportion. Apart from adherence of the citizens the Covid restrictions mass testing will also commence soon.
Already in the last one week as many as 131 persons have been found Covid positive and of them there are 82 cases in West Tripura district alone.
This variant -Omicron (BA.2) spreads very fast , but less lethal than that of previous variant Delta.
The concerned officials from the Health and administration on Monday held two meetings—one of the healtyh department officials and the other of the State Task Force under the chairmanship of Chief secretary J K Sinha who is also Principal Secretary Health to review the emerging situation and decided to bring in force once again the Covid norms in the public. Accordingly while wearing mask in public places made mandatory, citizens were also asked to maintain physical distance and use sanitizers frequently.
State Surveillance Officer Dr. Deep Kumar Debbarma in a press conference said “mass testing will take place in offices and markets at the initial stage. One week later the situation will be reviewed and based on the reports testing in the entry points will start.
Dr Debbarma who was accompanied by other experts called upon the people to strictly follow the Covid norms. He asked those who had any symptoms to go voluntary test as soon as possible and maintain appropriate behaviour.
The health officials pointed out that as per the patients profile hitherto received it was seen that Covid variants this time was infecting the people of all age group.
“Out of the total 131 positive cases– three are in 0-3 years, 19 in 11-20 years, 43 in 21-30 years, 24 in 31-40 years, 13 in 41-50 years, 14 in 41-60 years and 15 cases found in above 60 years age group”.
The rise of the Covid infection also seemed steady –13 positive samples had been found positive on July 4 last, 7 on July 5, 15 on July 6, six on July 7, 32 cases on July 8, 36 on July 9 and 22 on July 10.
Dr Debbarma said this time however the state healthcare facilities were well equipped to meet the situation effectively.
A 221-bed Dedicated Hospital for Covid treatment is functioning in GBP hospital where six persons with Covid infection are admitted; 125 infected persons are in home isolation, he told the reporters.
Microbiologist Dr. Tapan Majumder who was also in the press conference sought to explain the
technical sides and said the trend showed that the fourth wave of Covid might hit the state in spite of good vaccination coverage. He reminded that gatherings are important sources of Covid spread.
Dr Majumdar said, “genome sequencing facility is now available in the state and it will help real-time monitoring of samples and identify the new strain. As per the genome sequencing reports of last one month, almost all the cases have been detected Omicron (BA.2).
The microbiologist said, the Omicron-BA.2 spreads fast but it is less fatal as compared to the previous Delta strain.
“Genome sequencing is not possible without a batch of 48 positive samples with high viral load (CT value above 25). It can’t be done on a single sample. I had a discussion with the Union Ministry of Health today. The Union Government asked me to submit the genome sequencing results to NIT Pune and they would then examine and declare the final results,” he said.
Meanwhile, 22 fresh positive cases have been detected out of 309 samples tested in the past 24 hours—the positivity rate is 7.12 per cent, according to an official report.
