- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, December 31, 2021 : Under the chairmanship of the Tripura’s Chief Secretary Kumar Alok, a significant decision has been initiated for implementation of specific and strict measures in containing the spread of ‘Omicron’, new variant in the state from Friday onwards.
In order to deal with the spread of latest variant of COVID-19, the Tripura CS Kumar Alok chaired a meeting with the state level task force on December 24 last at Civil Secretariat here in Agartala city.
The Principal Secretary of the government of Tripura, Puneet Agarwal took permission of the Chief Secretary and have undertaken decisions for implementing specific measures to contain the spread of new variant Omicron across the state.
The Mission Director of the National Health Mission (NHM), Dr Siddhartha Shib Jaiswal in the meeting gave a presentation on the status of the COVID-19 in Tripura.
The decisions taken in the meeting include :
1. Wearing of masks or face cover is compulsory in public places, crowded areas, in markets, in all work places and offices and during travelling. If any violation is noticed, the DM & Collectors, SPS, Commissioner, AMC, Head of Departments are entitled to take action.
2. Wide and thorough publicity on wearing of masks or face cover and to maintain Covid Appropriate Behavior (CAB) through miking, print, electronic and social media shall be done. The Health department, ICA department and DM & Collectors shall make the necessary arrangements.
3. Fine may be imposed on the defaulters for not using masks or maintaining CAB from December 31, 2021 i.e. Friday itself. For this, public awareness should be done beforehand. The Health department, ICA department, Police Headquarters, SPs and DM & Collectors are given the charge to look into this significantly.
4. List of arrival of passengers from the high risk countries should be shared with the Police Headquarters and all SPs for strict monitoring of their mandatory home quarantine by police along with the health teams. Here, the Airport Authority of India, Health Department, PHQ, SPs and DM & Collectors are entitled to look into the matter.
5. The Health department should intensify the level of testing by activating additional teams.
6. Strict sample testing should be enforced in airport, all railway stations, all ICPs and Churaibari Entry Post and the Health department, DM & Collectors, AAI, NF Railway, BSF, I&C should ensure this immediately.
Furthermore, the authorities of Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Assam Rifles, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and other paramilitary forces should ensure strict compliance of sample testing of the persons coming from outside the state. A formal letter should be issued immediately on the subject.
