One of the two drivers of an ambulance that travelled more than 3,100 km from Chennai to drop five people in Tripura has tested positive for COVID-19.
Tripura’s Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath said the five residents – two female patients from Gomati and Baikhora and their attendants – returned in the ambulance on April 27.
“Thermal screening was done at Churaibari (Assam-Tripura border) entry point but the two drivers and the passengers were found asymptomatic. Their samples were collected and tested on Tuesday,” the Minister said, adding that one of the drivers from Tamil Nadu tested positive on Wednesday.
The test result came after the ambulance had already left Tripura on its return trip since the e-pass was valid till April 28. The vehicle was stopped at Siliguri on northern West Bengal late on Wednesday.
Officials in Tripura said the five people from the State were put in institutional quarantine as per guidelines. Two families shared the ambulance charges of ₹1.40 lakh.
The process of tracing the contacts of the drivers in the State had started, they said.
At least six other ambulances from Chennai have so far dropped patients and their attendants in various districts of Tripura. A 60-year-old male patient could not survive one of those trips.
