The decision came in the wake of the Centre's directives to the States to ramp up surveillance.
Although Tripura has not registered any cases of Omicron variant, the state government has decided to install a machine for genome sequencing in the state to fast track its efforts in containing the spread of the new variant of COVID-19, which was first detected in South Africa.
The Tripura cabinet spokesperson Sushanta Chowdhury said that Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb chaired a crucial review meeting to understand the situation. "After receiving the fresh directives from the Centre, we held a review meeting. There is reason to panic as we don't have a single case of Omicron here in the state", the chief minister said.
He informed the reporters that around 69 persons came from foreign countries and among them swab samples had been collected from 33 persons. Fortunately, 31 samples showed negative results and reports of two cases were still pending, reported news agency ANI.
"We had conducted the RT-PCR test during COVID-19. And for Omicron we need to do the genome sequencing test. At present we have no set-up for this and hence we are dependent on Biological and Molecular Studies in West Bengal for the test. By February we will install the machine at the GB Pant Hospital for the genome sequencing test," he said.
"We want to make an appeal to each and every citizen of the state to maintain the guidelines. We are capable of fighting Omicron as the infrastructure is enough. Strict measures will be in force and any sort of unnecessary crowding would be avoided", the minister informed the media persons.
