Tripura deployed its first mobile Covid-19 test van on Tuesday to collect swab samples as part of random community testing.

It has been designed and provided by the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) under the Smart City project, said to be the first of its kind in the Northeast.

AMC commissioner Sailesh Kumar Yadav told reporters the vehicle was a heavy-duty autorickshaw with a Covid-19 testing kiosk mounted on it and medical staff can collect swab samples from people without the need to wear personal protection equipment (PPE) every time.

“As part of random community testing, we have designed this mobile Covid-19 testing van. The medical staff can collect the samples from people from inside a glass encasement. We don’t have any Covid-19 patients anymore. So, the municipal corporation decided to adopt the mobile testing vehicle model to remove the necessity of using new PPE for collecting samples every time during random testing,” Yadav said.

West district health surveillance officer Dr Sangeeta Chakraborty said they collected five samples on the inaugural day.

The van will be at Maharajganj Bazar on Tuesday and move across all major markets in the city to collect swab samples from people who exhibit high temperature, after the medical team checks them with a thermal scanner. If anybody has high temperature, their samples will be collected and sent for testing at GB Pant Hospital here. The van would subsequently cover different subdivisions.

Chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb later posted on Facebook, “Agartala Smart City has designed a mobile van to collect samples of Covid-19 and handed it over to the chief health officer of West Tripura district. This ensures the safety of the medical staff who collect the sample and prevents wastage of PPE. This three-wheeler vehicle can easily enter narrow lanes and collect the samples from the entire community. Now patients will not have to go to the hospital to provide samples. It will also help to test on a large scale in a short time.”