AGARTALA, Aug 25 (TIWN) : Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has directed officials of the state's COVID-19 core committee to ramp up sample testing, and appealed to people to cooperate with the government in its fight against the disease, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Deb, during a review meeting on Monday evening, expressed concern over the spike in coronavirus cases in the state, and sought strict enforcement of safety protocols.  Tripura recorded 293 new COVID-19 cases and five fatalities on Monday.  Dr Tapan Majumder, the head of the microbiology department at Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC) and member of the core panel, said 46 samples were randomly collected for COVID-19 examination from a local market here recently, of which 26 tested positive.