Coronavirus: Tripura will begin rapid door-to-door testing of COVID-19 on July 13 by phase.
Agartala:
Tripura will begin rapid door-to-door phased testing of COVID-19 antigen across the state starting Monday. The announcement comes a day after the Assam government adopted a similar strategy to deal with the increase in coronavirus cases.
Aggressive tests and containment measures were announced after Covid’s Tripura cases – which had not reported any cases until the last week of April – touched 1,704 on Tuesday with one death and more than 400 cases assets.
In Tripura, the exercise will take place in two phases. In phase 1, all entry points of the State and the population in its 28 containment zones will be covered. There are 7,629 people living in these regions.
Over the next week, starting July 13, the state government will begin COVID19 antigen testing for all passengers arriving from Agartala Airport, the train station, and the airport control gate. Churaibari on the Assam-Tripura border in the north of the Tripura district.
If someone is found positive, they will be sent to a Covid care center. They will be quarantined at home for 14 days only after a negative test, officials said.
The state will need around 50,000 rapid antigen test kits for phase 1. “Some 14,000 kits have been received from the central government so far,” said Foreign Minister Ratan Lal Nath.
In phase 2, every household in the state will be covered, officials said, adding that the state had decided to follow the Test-Track-Treat method to manage the epidemic.
Health workers will go to each house and examine all members. Those with fever and other symptoms will be tested for coronavirus. “The tests will be carried out using a rapid antigen detection kit,” added officials.
An antigen test provides results in less than 30 minutes, but is less accurate than the conventional RT-PCR test.
