Sikkim on Saturday reported its first Covid-19 positive case after a man who recently returned from Delhi tested positive.
The
25-year-old man, who arrived in Sikkim on May 19, was sent to a
quarantine centre along with 11 others. On May 21, he developed fever
and was shifted to STNM Hospital in Gangtok on Friday.
His swab
sample was collected and sent to the North Bengal Medical College and
Hospital in Siliguri, West Bengal. Till Saturday night, 1707 people were
tested in the Himalayan state.
“The 25-year-old man tested Covid-19 positive,” said state health secretary Pempa Bhutia.
Bhutia
said the man from a South Sikkim district was staying at Haiderpur in
Delhi as a paying guest along with six others and was attending coaching
classes for UPSC examinations.
“All those who returned with him
are in quarantine. They will be tested too,” Bhutia said over phone from
Gangtok. The driver of the bus which ferried these people from Siliguri
to Sikkim will also be tested.
The development came a day after
the state government announced that classes for students from Class 9 to
university level would resume from June 15. With this Sikkim becomes
the first state in the country to partially open educational
institutions.
Chief
Minister Prem Singh Tamang had been reiterating that the real challenge
would begin after Sikkimese people and students start returning from
other states after relaxation of the lockdown.
Sikkim was one of
the first states to seal inter-state and international borders and ban
entry of both domestic and foreign tourists and migrant labourers.
Timely
and drastic measures had helped Sikkim remain Covid-19 free till
Saturday while adjoining Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts in West
Bengal witnessed the death of two people. The number of Covid-19 cases
in Siliguri and other parts of North Bengal is now on the rise.
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