GUWAHATI: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Monday said the two battalion headquarters of Border Security Force (BSF) in the state’s Dhalai district had recorded a large number of COVID-19 cases due to violation of the protocols, including social distancing.
Sharing the observations made by the National Centre for Disease Control which submitted its report to the state government, Deb said the violation of quarantine norms, besides social distancing, had caused the infection among BSF personnel and their family members.
Of Tripura’s 316 COVID-19 cases so far, 162 were reported from the BSF’s 86th and 138th battalion headquarters. The 162 people included 135 personnel, 26 family members and a mess worker. They all have recovered but have been kept in extended quarantine at the battalion headquarters as a precautionary measure.
“We have already shared the report of the central expert team with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. I learnt that the 138th BSF battalion commandant was replaced following the outbreak of the disease. Some personnel and their family members, who had returned from different parts of the country in February and March, should have strictly followed the COVID-19 protocols,” Deb said.
Earlier, a three-member central expert team had visited the state to study the source of the disease at the two BSF battalion headquarters and its rapid infection among the troopers.
Deb claimed that community transmission of the disease in Tripura was not possible as people were very conscious about it. He said the contagion in the state had spread from the BSF personnel and some 14,000 returnees.
A woman and a jawan of Tripura State Rifles were the state’s first two cases. Both had travelled by a train from Guwahati. After they had recovered, the cases were continuously reported from the two BSF battalion headquarters.