Agartala, May 3 (IANS): Twelve more Border Security Force (BSF) troopers on Sunday tested positive for Covid-19 in Tripura taking the total active cases among the paramilitary personnel in the state to 14, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said late Sunday night.

Deb, who also holds the health and home portfolios, said in a tweet: "12 persons from 138 battalion BSF unit in Ambassa (in northern Tripura's Dhalai district) found COVID-19 positive. Total COVID-19 positive cases in Tripura stand at 16 (two already discharged, so active cases: 14). Don't panic, follow the Govt guidelines. We are working vigilantly for your safety."

A week after the state was declared novel coronavirus free, two BSF jawans tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday in the same 138 battalion BSF unit in Ambassa. Health officials said here that they have collected the samples of 68 people who came in close contacts with the first case, a Head Constable of the border guarding force, and of the 68 swab samples, 12 cases so far tested positive.

A senior BSF officer told IANS that the first of the two infected persons belonged to Assam and he has been suffering from some ailments after he returned to Tripura from his hometown in Sivasagar district in Assam on March 11.

"The ailing head constable and his attending colleague have tested positive for coronavirus at the Govind Ballabh Pant Medical College and Hospital in Agartala on Saturday," the officer said, refusing to be named. With the recovery of Tripura's last and second patient, a 32-year-old Tripura State Rifles jawan and a resident of Uttar Pradesh, on April 25, the Tripura government had declared the northeastern state as novel coronavirus free.

The state's first patient, a 45-year-old woman who tested positive for the virus on April 6 after she returned from Assam by train, has already recovered and was discharged on April 15.