Cases continue to surge in Thoubal with 12 more; total now stands at 2068
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 22 2020: Altogether 53 persons including 24 security personnel and two healthcare workers have tested positive for COVID-19 today spiking the State's tally to 2068 .

The State now has 650 active cases and 1418 recovered cases.

The recovery rate now stands at 68.56 percent.

Of the 24 security personnel who tested positive of the virus today, 13 are personnel of 37 Assam Rifles stationed at Kadamtala, Jiribam while 11 are jawans of STC BSF Churachandpur.

Our CCpur correspondent reports : Eleven of the 36 samples collected from jawans of STC BSF Churachandpur have tested positive for Covid-19 today along with one staff of a private clinic in Churachandpur, leaving the local authorities scrambling to tackle the situation.

While the STC BSF was the third group to test positive, the lone case from Advanced Diagnostic was a matter of concern as it was suspected that the clinic staff may have been exposed to the virus while conducting a test on BSF jawans whose results returned positive on July 16 .

Sources said one STC BSF jawan had typhoid test done from the clinic and later the jawan turned out to be Covid positive.

Though the district administration is understood to have summoned a meeting of top officials including the SP, CMO, MS, and SDOs in the evening, it is not exactly known what transpired at the meeting.

On the other hand, the thirteen AR personnel of Jiribam tested positive during rapid antigen testing at District Hospital Jiribam.

Meanwhile, the two healthcare workers who tested positive were engaged with sample collection in Imphal East district.

One of them hails from Thoubal and the other hails from Sawombung.

All necessary measures like contact tracing and testing of suspected cases will be initiated, said sources in the Health Department.

After the whole of Thoubal district was locked down, 12 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in the district today.

The 12 cases include a father and son duo from Lilong who had close contact with the Pradhan from Moijing who tested positive for the virus recently.

The cases also include three from Moijing and one who had close contact with the RIMS doctor (PG student) who had tested positive earlier.

All the other cases had close contact with volunteers of quarantine centres who had tested positive earlier, said sources.

Of the 12 cases, nine cases were detected when testing 225 samples at the Thoubal District Hospital and the remaining three cases were detected when testing 41 samples at Thoubal Moijing High School.

Since the start of contact tracing and rapid antigen testing of suspected cases from July 16 in the district, 652 samples have been tested so far.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the district has reached 136, said a report of the Deputy Commissioner Thoubal, N Bandana.

It may be noted that the health authorities and the district administration are on high alert since the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in various pockets of Thoubal in the last few days.

Security personnel were seen enforcing the lockdown in Thoubal today.

All markets and shops in the district remained closed today.

Meanwhile, a report from the COVID-19 Common Control Room showed that 45 persons (40 males and 5 females) tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

They hail from Churachandpur (12), Jiribam (13), Ukhrul (7), Senapati (5), Thoubal (4 and another 8 reported here) and Imphal East (4) .

All except the four persons from Thoubal are returnees from other States.

They are being shifted to COVID-19 Care Centre, said the report.

On the other hand, 34 persons have been discharged from CCCs opened at Meitram (23), JNV Kangpokpi (3), RIMS (2) and JNIMS (6), added the report.

The COVID-19 Common Control Room further clarified that there is no report of any death due to COVID-19 from any part of the State.

The personnel of the 37 AR posted at Pailanpool of Cachar district, Assam was found COVID-19 positive and treated at Silchar College and died there on July 19.Meanwhile, Lilong Dam Mathak area and quarantine centres opened at New Ideal High School and Sangaiyumpham Higher Secondary School Block C have been declared as containment zones.

The COVID-19 Care Centre opened at Moreh has started treating a COVID patient, said sources.

The patient who tested positive yesterday is stable and normal.

The person had returned from Guwahati and had been staying under quarantine at Saint Peter School, Tengnoupal, said doctors.

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