Gangtok: Sikkim on Thursday reported the third COVID-19 case when a returnee from Mumbai tested positive for the disease, a top Health department official said.
Confirming it, the Director General (DG)-cum-Secretary of Health Department Dr Pempa Tshering Bhutia said that the 34 year-old man had given his swab samples for testing in Mumbai after he had developed symptoms of COVID-19 but did not wait for his test results before boarding the Shramik special train to return to Sikkim.
He was travelling on way to New Jalpaiguri railway station when it was informed to him by the hospital in Mumbai that he was COVID-19 positive.
The man was travelling in the bogie no 4 of the Shramik special Train with passengers from other northeastern states, Dr Bhutia said, adding that the officials of other states have been informed about fellow travellers of their respective states.
The passenger (third Covid-19 positive case) was being brought in a separate ambulance from New Jalpaiguri railway station to STNM hospital here.
The other 12 passengers of Sikkim who travelled in the same train were being taken to a quarantine facility and Truenat tests will be conducted immediately on arrival.
The administration has started contact tracing of all those who travelled with him on the train and they will be tested immediately on arrival to Sikkim and other states will do the same for passengers travelling in the same train, he said.
The earlier two COVID-19 cases in Sikkim were that of a 56-year-old man who returned from Delhi and a 25-year-old male from Rabangla, South District with travel histor to Delhi. PTI
