India News | Tripura Begins Administering COVID-19 Booster Dose to Frontline Workers, Senior Citizens

Agartala, Jan 10 (PTI) The Tripura health department on Monday started administering a third or precautionary dose of COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare and frontline workers and co-morbid people aged 60 years and above, who took their second dose of vaccine nine months ago.

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Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb took to social media to appreciate the frontline workers “who played an important role in strengthening our fight against COVID”.

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Urging people to maintain COVID-Appropriate Behaviour (CAB), Minister for Information and Cultural Affairs, Sushanta Chowdhury said health experts have predicted that the border state might witness a peak in coronavirus cases in January and February.

He told reporters that in view of a health department report that the state now has an overall 5 per cent positivity rate, while the Agartala Municipal Corporation has a 16.95 per cent positivity rate, people need to take extra precautions to curb the spread of the infection.

The minister said the Tripura government has made all necessary arrangements to tackle any crisis.

“The state government has decided to recruit around 500-700 doctors, nurses, and lab technicians on contract basis to handle the situation,” Chowdhury said.

Highlighting that 22 oxygen plants are operational and 2,562 beds, including 700 for serious patients, are available in the state at present, he said, if required, the number of beds would be increased, the minister said.

As many as 1,729 oxygen concentrators, 2,263 oxygen cylinders, 2,391 pulse oximeters, and 192 ventilators are in stock, Chowdhury said.

As children might be more vulnerable to the infection this time, 216 ICU beds have been created for them in Agartala alone while the districts have been asked to add 50 ICU beds to the existing infrastructure, he said.

“The state government has strengthened the health infrastructure in the districts so that patients can get medical facilities in their respective districts as well as to reduce the rush in Agartala,” Chowdhury said.

When contacted, state immunisation officer, Supratim Biswas said, the state government has set a target of providing the booster dose to 92,000 senior citizens, besides 130,000 frontline workers.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)