3 more test positive for COVID-19 in Bengal, total count 21


PTI | Kolkata | Updated: 30-03-2020 00:17 IST | Created: 30-03-2020 00:17 IST
3 more test positive for COVID-19 in Bengal, total count 21
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Three more persons in West Bengal tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the total number of such cases in the state to 21, an official said. One of them, a 52-year-old doctor at a city-based Army hospital, had recently returned from Delhi, while the travel history of a 66-year-old man was yet to be ascertained. The third, a 59-year-old-man from Hooghly's Sheoraphuli, had recently travelled to Durgapur, according to the official.

"The doctor and the 66-year-old man had complained of severe respiratory distress. They are undergoing treatment at separate hospitals in the city," he said. The man from Sheoraphuli has been admitted to a private hospital in the city since Saturday with fever, cough and a mild respiratory trouble, the official said.

"He is a diabetic and hypertensive patient and had travelled to Durgapur before March 16," a hospital official said. "He is currently admitted in the ICCU isolation ward with respiratory distress." According to the health department official, the doctor, an anaesthetist, might be infected with the virus during his travel to Delhi. "We need to enquire his activities after returning from Delhi... on whether he had visited any patients or not. But this does not seem to be a case of community transmission. He is currently admitted at an isolation ward of the command hospital here," the official said.

The other elderly person, a resident of Baranagar, who had severe breathing problem along with fever and cough, is undergoing treatment at the isolation ward of a private hospital, the official added. "He has no history of travelling abroad or to any other state in the country. But as per the information received, his brother had recently returned from Madhya Pradesh," the official said. "We need to find out whether that person has any infection or not." Meanwhile, another elderly COVID-19 patient from Nayabad is undergoing treatment at a separate private hospital and his condition is stated to be critical, he said.

His daughter-in-law and granddaughter, however, tested negative, though results of swab tests of his wife and son were awaited. The condition of the first COVID-19 patient in the state has improved, the health department official said.

Meanwhile, the state health department along with the district administration has identified 49 people who came in contact with the five members of the family from Tehatta, who tested positive for coronavirus, an official said. A 26-year-old woman, on Sunday morning called up senior officials of the state health administration and said she had travelled with the five in a train.

"We have quarantined all 50 people who came in contact with the members of the family from Tehatta. All of them will be kept under observation. Like the woman, we want others to come out," another health department official said. PTI SCH RMS SK BDC HMB.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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