Tripura on Thursday recorded 24 new COVID-19 cases, taking its overall tally to 88 with 86 active cases. Two patients have been already discharged.

Tripura, which was declared a COVID-19-free state on May 2 by Chief Minister Biplab Deb, now tops the chart of positive coronavirus cases in the Northeast.

The new patients are also all BSF personnel and they are from the 86 Battalion.

With the reportage of these new cases, the total number of BSF personnel infected with coronavirus has risen to 79.

Of the total active cases, 61 patients are being treated at GBP Hospital in Agartala and till Thursday, a total of 6893 COVID-19 tests were done in the state.

Meanwhile, the source of infection has remained a mystery for the Border Security Force (BSF) after its personnel and their family tested positive earlier this week.

It may be mentioned here that the first two BSF personnel who tested positive for COVID-19 in Tripura was reported on May 2 after CM Deb declared it as a coronavirus-free state.

The two personnel were posted at the BSF’s 138 Battalion in Ambassa, 82 km north of capital Agartala.

Ambassa is the headquarters of Dhalai district bordering the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

Tripura education minister Ratan Lal Nath, after the declaration of the two positive cases on May 2, said, "We have through Principal Secretary (Home) BK Sahu asked the Inspector-General of BSF Tripura Frontier, Solomon YK Minzh to submit a report with details on the source of the infection."

“We have taken steps to prevent the infection from spreading besides trying to identify the primary and secondary sources of infection of our jawans,” a senior BSF official in Tripura had said then.

Speculating further, officials in Tripura did not rule out the possibility of BSF personnel being infected from people along the international border.

Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, where the number of COVID-19 cases has crossed the 12,000 mark besides killing 190 people.

The virus has spread to 62 of the country’s 64 districts, including those bordering Tripura.