Covid-19: Railway employee becomes second person to die in north Bengal ... all those who came in contact with the patient at work or in the railway colony in Siliguri where he lived, must be quarantined.

Pramod Giri, HT, Apr 05, 2020, Siliguri:  A 55-year-old railway employee who tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday and was admitted at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital here died on Sunday, marking the second death in the region and eighth in the pandemic in state.

North Bengal region’s first victim, a woman who lived in Kalimpong, was admitted in the same hospital and died on March 30.

Till Saturday night, the Bengal government officially maintained that three people have died of Covid-19 while four others who also tested positive might have died of co-morbidity.

The state government did not issue any statement on Sunday’s death till the evening but HT accessed an emergency notice in which the divisional railway manager said that all those who came in contact with the patient at work or in the railway colony in Siliguri where he lived must be sent to quarantine.

The Bengal government said that till Saturday night said 68 people have tested positive so far out of whom, 49 are active cases.

Sunday’s patient was the second railway employee to die in Bengal. The first was a resident of Dum Dum in the North 24 Parganas. He was also the state’s first victim.

A senior doctor who spoke to HT on condition of anonymity said, “The man was first admitted at the railway hospital in New Jalpaiguri and later shifted to a private nursing home. Since his symptoms pointed at the infection he was brought to NBMCH on March 26, the day the woman from Kalimpong was admitted.”

The doctor said that the man tested negative twice but tested positive on Saturday. Members of his family were sent to quarantine after the man died.