Even as the government is set to send an Air India flight to evacuate Indian citizens in China's Wuhan, news of the death of a Tripura youth in Malaysia due to coronavirus infection has been reported. The 22-year-old youth's family said that he was admitted to a hospital in Malaysia after he was infected by the dreaded virus.
However, Tripura Health and Family Welfare Director Radha Debbarma claimed that the government has not received any information about the incident.
Sahajan Mia resident of Bishalgarh said his son Manir Hossain, 22, died in a Malaysian hospital after he was reportedly infected by the Novel Coronavirus, news agency IANS reported.
"Manir had been working in a restaurant in Malaysia since 2018. On Wednesday the restaurant staff informed us over phone that he had died in a hospital due to coronavirus," Mia informed the media. He said the family was trying to bring the body back home with the help of the state government.
Meanwhile, Tripura Health and Family Welfare Director Radha Debbarma told IANS on Thursday the government has set up a special screening desk and counter at the Agartala airport and in the integrated checkpost along the India-Bangladesh border at Akhaurah, near Agartala.
Though neither of the northeastern states' airport has direct flight connectivity with any of the cities in China or Nepal, but people from Nepal and other countries along the northeastern states occasionally come to northeast India by road. According to officials in Imphal, Shillong and Aizawl, screening test counters have been set up at airports and border entry points as a preventive measure.
The death toll in China due to the novel coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 213 while there are as many as 9,692 total number of confirmed cases.
(With agency inputs)
