Staff Reporter Aizawl, June 22:
The administration of Mizoram's largest orphanage-cum-rehab centre TNT has blamed 'false negative certificate' as the main cause of the spread of coronavirus in the facility where nearly half of the inmates have tested positive.
TNT joint director Vanlalmuanpuia told reporters that it had been made mandatory for any one to be admitted to the centre to have a COVID-19 negative certificate.
“As each of the fresh inmates had produced negative certificate before being admitted to the centre, it now appears that those who showed negative results but were positive spread the virus in the centre,” he said.
Vanlalmuanpuia mentioned that there was almost zero chance for visitors spreading the virus as visitors were “very strictly monitored”.
During mass screening conducted by Mizoram Operational Team on COVID-19 at the facility on Sunday and Monday, 547 people, including 105 children, out of 1,092 inmates and caretakers, tested positive for COVID19. The positivity rate was 49.7 per cent.
Located at Muanna Veng on the northern fringes of Aizawl, TNT houses an orphanage, de-addiction centre and a ward for mentally-challenged persons.
Besides 34 workers, 231 inmates from De-Addiction Centres, 105 inmates from orphanage and 137 from mentally challenged ward tested positive.
With only one RT-PCR lab operational, Mizoram government currently employs RAT to test most of the samples.
(Source: Newslink Vol-XXIII No.130 Aizawl June 23, Wednesday 2021)