The Tripura government on Tuesday sounded a coronavirus alert in the whole state especially along the Indo-Bangla international border, an official said.
Health Secretary Dr Debashish Bose said, "We have received an advisory from the Union Ministry of Health regarding the standard procedure being prescribed to all states for combating the coronavirus. So, the alert was sounded today itself".
Tripura shares an 856-km long international border with Bangladesh.
"Many people enter our country through Agartala- Akhaura integrated check post (ICP). We have taken adequate measures to screen those people, if they were carrying the deadly coronavirus. We are also in the process of setting up of such mechanism in all the check posts along the border", Bose said.
There are eight notified Land Custom Stations (LCS) in Tripura and about 1,500 people enter the state every day from Bangladesh.
He said, with the availability of enough manpower the screening procedure could be adopted at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport and railway stations of the state.
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Director of Family Welfare and Preventive Medicine Dr Radha Debbarma said that a medical team was already sent to Akhaura ICP, where they are checking Bangladeshis entering into the country to ascertain if they are carrying the virus.
Debbarma said the authorities of the Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC) were instructed to keep an isolation ward ready for admission of the patients carrying the suspected virus.
He said the state government has also launched an awareness programme about the coronavirus.