Four Tourists missing among Twenty two new COVID cases in Sikkim

Twenty-two new Covid cases were detected in Sikkim from the 312 samples tested on Thursday. The State’s active Covid tally is now 241.

Among the 22 new Covid cases, four are tourists who are untraceable despite efforts made by the contact tracing team of the Health department.

Health State IEC officer Sonam G. Bhutia stated that, ‘One tourist was staying in a hotel at Tibet Road here but has not responded to the calls made by the Health department. The tourist was named as Balwant Kumar (38 years)’.

Similarly, three tourists were found Covid positive during the rapid antigen testing at CRH Manipal here. When contacted by the Health team, the tourists claimed that they have already left Sikkim and have reached their respective home States. The tourists were named as A. Gupta (Assam), Kalayan Singh (43, Delhi) and Purnima Pakhira (30, Kolkata).

Bhutia appealed tour operators and hoteliers to tell their guests to come to Sikkim only after getting a Covid negative certificate obtained through a RTPCR test. He also appealed the general public here to pass similar information to their guests or relatives coming from outside the State.

In this case, the tourists had not brought a RTPCR negative certificate and only upon their arrival, they were told at the hotel reception counter to do a Covid test before checking in. They went for a rapid antigen test and after being detected Covid positive, the tourists went immediately missing or maybe are staying in some other hotel by misleading the particular hotel management.

Two local persons, found Covid positive, could also not be traced since they are unreachable on their phone numbers. One is a 73 year old male from Sichey and other is a 35 year old male who has given his address as ‘Gangtok’ only. Three positive cases were also reported from North Sikkim. Two cases are reported from Bardang followed by one case each from NHPC, Mining, Majitar and Singtam.

In Gangtok, two cases came from Development Area, one case from Chanmari, one case from Bojoghari and one case was from Arithang. At present, 26 Covid positive patients are admitted in STNM Hospital while one patient is at Namchi hospital.