Agartala, Sep 5 (PTI) Tripura Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath has said his colleagues can spend some time at the Govinda Ballabh Pant (GBP) Hospital here by rotation to interact with healthcare professionals and monitor the COVID- 19 situation.

"Every single COVID-19 death is unfortunate and undesirable. There is a spike in the number of fatalities in the country as well as in our state. If the situation demands ministers would alternately stay in the hospital for monitoring and better coordination," he told reporters at the civil secretariat.

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Nath's comments came shortly after former health Minister and ruling BJP MLA Sudip Roy Barman alleged that officials, entrusted with the responsibility of the health department, have failed to tackle the coronavirus situation in Tripura, "as a result of which people are dying unattended and untreated".

Addressing a press conference at the Agartala Press Club on Friday, Barman said Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb should frequently interact with people and healthcare staff.

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He also claimed that a deceased person's body was kept in the hospital for three days without informing his relatives.

"We must take actions against doctors and other staff concerned if patients die of negligence," Nath said.

Tripura registered its highest single-day spike of 691 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, which pushed the tally in the northeastern state to 14,527, a health department official said.

The death toll rose to 136 after seven more people succumbed to the infection, he said.

(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)