NBMCH nurse tests positive for coronavirus

TT, 6 April 2020, Siliguri: A nurse attached to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital near here tested positive for the novel coronavirus, health officials said here on Monday.

"The nurse was on duty at the isolation ward and came in direct contact with some Covid-19 patients. It seems that is why she got the infection," said Pralay Acharya, the chief medical officer of health, Darjeeling.

Sources said the nurse was under treatment at the same isolation ward.

In Calcutta, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said four of the 10 Covid-19 patients —family members or relatives of the Kalimpong woman who had been detected with the disease and died on March 30 —had tested negative for the virus on Monday.

"Even they would not be released immediately. They would be kept under observation for some more days," said a source.

The health department officials plan to test swabs of family members of a railway technician who died at the NBMCH on Sunday. Twelve medical employees — two doctors and 10 paramedics — attached to the railway hospital at NJP were asked to quarantine themselves. The deceased technician had initially been admitted to the railway hospital.

The health department didn't comment on the cause of the technician's death.