A man who has recently returned from the United Kingdom has tested positive for COVID-19 in Tripura, but it is yet to be ascertained whether he has been infected by the mutant coronavirus strain, a senior official said on Saturday.
The Tripura government has identified two persons who have returned from the UK in a fortnight, of whom one has tested positive for COVID-19, the state nodal officer for coronavirus, Dr Deep Debbarma, told reporters.
He said the man's samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune to check for the mutated strain of the coronavirus.
"The infected person and his family members have been put under home isolation. He had returned home around 14 days ago and is asymptomatic," Debbarma said.
The fresh case has taken the northeastern state's COVID-19 tally to 33,226, a health official said.
One more patient succumbed to the infection, pushing the state's coronavirus death toll to 382, he added.
Tripura now has 172 active COVID-19 cases, while 32,649 people have recovered from the disease and 23 patients have migrated to other states, the official said.
Sixty-three more people have been cured of the disease, he said.
The state has so far conducted 5,72,920 COVID-19 tests, including 2,17,366 RT-PCR and 3,55,554 rapid antigen tests.