COVID-19: Top official, health worker at state-run hospital test positive in WB

A top official and a health worker at a state-run hospital in neighbouring Howrah district tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, officials at the state health department said. Both of them have been shifted to the MR Bangur Hospital in south Kolkata, one of the four facilities earmarked in the city for treatment of COVID-19 patients, they said.

"A senior official of the Howrah district hospital was under home quarantine since Monday, as he had developed symptoms of coronavirus infection. After his swab tested positive this morning he was taken to MR Bangur Hospital," an official said. Some doctors at the Howrah hospital have been placed under quarantine, and the process of identifying all those who came in contact with the senior official and the medical staff member was underway, he said.

According to him, the official had come in contact with a COVID-19 patient from Salkia in the district, who died due to the disease on March 30. Meanwhile, 12 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in West Bengal, taking the total number of active cases in the state to 80, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here on Thursday. Banerjee, who chaired a review meeting at Nabanna, the state secretariat, also said that three more persons have been discharged from hospital following recovery.

"Yesterday (Wednesday), the total number of active cases stood at 71. Today, three persons were released but 12 fresh cases were reported. The total number of active cases now stands at 80 in Bengal," Banerjee said. So far, 104 people have tested positive for novel coronavirus in West Bengal. Of them five have died, and 19 recovered from the disease.