COVID-19: 208 in hospital isolation in Bengal

Guidelines issued for pool testing of migrants, foreign returnees

Kolkata: Two hundred eight persons including 14 confirmed COVID-19 patients – one of them a nine month old baby girl, the country’s youngest Coronavirus positive case – are admitted in the isolation wards of various hospitals in West Bengal where one person has died of the disease so far.

According to the state health department, till date samples were collected from 330 suspects, of whom 15 tested positive in the state.

A 57-year-old man has been the only fatality due to the disease in Bengal so far.

Till date, 6,51,134 persons have been screened at different entry points in the state – 81,093 at Kolkata and Bagdogra Airports, 5,64,566 at seven Land Border Check Points along Nepal and Bangladesh, and 5475 crew members of ships at three ports.

“So far, 2710 travellers have been identified and placed under surveillance. For 1819 of them the surveillance period has been over. A total of 208 people are admitted in isolation facilities at hospitals. Rest 25,080 is under home surveillance,” it said.

The health condition of all persons under surveillance is stable including the patients admitted in Isolation.

On Friday, samples were collected from 61 persons, of whom five belonging to a closed group of siblings and relatives tested positive.

The confirmed cases included a nine month old baby girl – the youngest person afflicted with the disease in the country – a six-year-old girl child, 11-year-old boy and two women, who are all admitted at the state-run Infectious diseases Hospital, Beliaghata.