West Bengal: Two persons, including Army doctor, test positive for COVID-19

According to reports, a 52-year-old anesthesiologist of the Army hospital in Kolkata, who had returned from Delhi on Mar 16, and another 66-year-old man tested positive for COVID19.

"After returning from Delhi on Mar 16, the Army doctor, who is the the head of Kolkata's Command hospital's Anesthesiology department had joined his duties on Mar 17 and before falling sick he was active in the hospital until Mar 21," a state health official said.

A source in the Indian Army's Eastern Command said the colonel-ranked doctor is undergoing treatment in a stable condition in an isolated ICU at the Command hospital.

"He has been quarantined since admission and all other precautionary guidelines against the spread of COVID-19 have been followed here," the source said.

Earlier on Saturday, two women from East Medinipur's Egra and another 44-year-old lady from Kalimpong, who is undergoing treatment at North Bengal Medical College in Siliguri, tested positive for COVID-19.

Presently, West Bengal is treating 19 novel coronavirus positive patients at different hospitals while the state had reported first and so far only death due to the disease in Kolkata on Mar 23.

West Bengal health officials said that 44,837 persons are under home surveillance in the state while 171 persons with COVID19 symptoms have been kept in the isolation wards of several state hospitals.