Northeast: Tripura gets its first mobile COVID-19 testing kiosk
Despite being declared as a coronavirus–free state, Tripura is not taking the deadly pandemic lightly. To undertake rapid testing, the state set up its first COVID-19 testing kiosk on Tuesday (April 28). A three-wheeler heavy-duty auto rickshaw is first such sample collection kiosk in the northeast region so far.
This mobile kiosk enables the healthcare workers to collect swab samples from inside a glass encasement reducing the risk of physical contact with patients. Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) Smart City Project designed this kiosk at the cost of ₹1 lakh, Indian Express reported.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb took to Facebook and said the mobile van will ensure safety of healthcare staff collecting samples. He also said the three-wheeler van can easily be driven through narrow lanes and facilitate easy sample collection. Now patients wouldn’t need to go to hospitals to provide samples, he added.
West Tripura district health surveillance officer Dr Sangeeta Chakraborty said that a total of five swab samples were collected on Monday by the mobile testing kiosk, East Mojo reported.
“We have made the device seeing the Kerala model of testing where stationary testing kiosks are placed in front of hospitals,” AMC Commissioner Dr Sailesh Kumar Yadav said.
Kerala was the first in the country to set up a walk-in COVID-19 sample collection kiosk at the Ernakulam medical college hospital. The kiosk testing model is an idea inspired by South Korea.
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COVID-19 and Northeast
On Monday (April 27), the central government declared five of the eight northeast states—Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura as COVID-19 free. Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram had 8, 11 and 1 coronavirus cases, respectively, and were waiting for them to test negative, Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh said.
#Northeast Video Conference meeting: 5 out of 8 States #Corona free while other 3 have not added any new Corona positive case in the last few days.CMs,State Govts, Northeast Ministry/DoNER, North Eastern Council deserve appreciation for perfect coordination to make this possible. pic.twitter.com/wDVJmSSLyq
— Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) April 27, 2020
Singh also congratulated the state governments of the region, the chief ministers and also the officials in the ministry of DoNER for ensuring efficient coordination, which has made this possible, PTI reported.
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(With inputs from agecies)
