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Panic gripped Tripura after an under-trial prisoner tested COVID-19 positive in Bishalgarh Central Jail and the body of a 50-year-old infected patient was found in flu clinic of Agartala Govt Medical College (AGMC) on June 2.

Out of 380 samples tested during the day, 23 people tested coronavirus positive on June 2 afternoon.

Among the positive cases, 20 have travel history while three had come into direct contact with positive patients, officials said, adding that the highest single-day spike of COVID-19 was recorded at 107 on June 1.

As a result, total number of active cases registered in Tripura now stands at 273 out of 446 confirmed cases.

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb reasserted that Tripura has no instance of community transmission of COVID-19 yet and the administration has been put on the high alert.

“The positive cases either have travel history or got into direct contact with the infected people,” he said.

According to reports, the under-trial prisoner, who tested COVID-19 positive, has been shifted to treatment centre in Agartala, and as many as 22 people, including the investigating officers had come in close contact with him, contract tracing has revealed.

District Magistrate of Sepahijala district CK Jamatia said the infected prisoner had been arrested in connection with a drug peddling case from Madhupur area of Bishalgarh in Sepahijala district on May 26 and after three days of police custody he was sent to jail on May 29. Thereafter, he developed symptoms and his sample was found positive on June 2.

“We have sanitized the jail complex and it was found that since the beginning of his arrest, the accused was in isolation but in a few occasions he had come in the contact of two other under-trials, whose samples have also been collected. The policemen and others in the local court where the positive person went have also been sent to quarantine,” Jamatia said.

Meanwhile, the police launched an investigation after the body of a woman was found hanging in a bathroom of the flu clinic of AGMC on June 2.

She had been admitted to the clinic with coronavirus symptoms and tested positive on June 1 night. The doctors claimed that the woman had escaped their attention and hanged herself in the bathroom.

The body was hanging for a long time, as none was willing to release it, apprehending the spread of the infection. No decision has been taken about the postmortem and disposal of the body, till the filing of this report.

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