27 patients released from DESUN hospital….21 doctors and 6 nurses and other staff released from quarantine … TrueNat and CB-NATT testing machines installed at NBMCH… 1000 in home quarantines of GTA area.

KalimNews, Kalimpong, 13 May 2020: 

DAILY REPORT 

NORTH BENGAL 

27 patients released: Out of 33 patients in the DESUN severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) Hospital, 27 tested negative to the Covid-19 test, they are released. 6 are still waiting their swab test result. 1 new patient of Kalimpong is admitted in DESUN hospital while 4 of Darjeeling are already admitted since 11 May. 

27 medics of NBMCH completes quarantine: 21 doctors, 3 nurses and 4 other medical staff are released after completing 14 days quarantine. All 27 doctors and nurses who were in quarantine centre of Amit Agarwala city Bhavan, completed their quarantine period and are released. They may join their duty as usual. 

4 at NBMCH: Since some days there are 2 patients in the Isolation ward at NBMCH. At present 2 females are admitted in the gynaecological Isolation ward of NBMCH. One of them is from Kumlai Tea Garden of Jalpaiguri and another is from Phansidewa. They have symptoms similar to Covid-19. 

2 test machines installed: Today complete VRDL laboratory of NBMCH that used to perform Covid-19 tests was sanitised and no tests were performed. For enhancing the number of testing of Covid-19, two types of testing machines recommended by ICMR are installed at NBMCH and today some tests were performed. Of these machines TrueNat machines and CB-NAAT machines (more popular as GeneXpert) which are used for tuberculosis testing will be deployed for testing Covid-19 suspects. 

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had recommended the use of the Truenat beta CoV test as a screening test for COVID-19. It has also approved the use of US-FDA approved real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) systems such as GeneXpert and Roche Cobas- 6800/800 in emergency situations. It can now diagnose a positive result for the coronavirus strain within an hour for Rs. 1,350. 

The test — called the Truenat Beta CoV test — effectively enables same-day testing, reporting, and patient isolation initiation (if required). Its battery-operated kits are the size of a telephone and can be taken out into the field to test as many as 15 individuals a day. They range between Rs. 6.5 lakh and Rs. 12 lakh and have received both government and ICMR approval. The testing kits uses Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technology, which uses a swab from the throat to diagnose diseases — a more accurate method when it comes to diagnosis. While the tests by GeneXpert machines are confirmatory tests, the tests by Truenat machines are screening tests. But the turnaround time in both is one hour to two hours. 

6 Covid-19 positive patients at Covid Hospital: Currently, 6 Covid-19 patients who donot belong to the districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong are being treated at Dr. Chang’s super speciality Covid-19 hospital. They are 1 doctor of NBMCH (resident of Kolkata), 3 of Alipurduar, 1 of Malda, 1 driver from Chennai. As they tested positive for the third time they are still under treatment 

GTA 

15 patients in institutional and 1000 in home quarantine: At quarantine centre of ITI, Upper Fagu Gorubathan under Kalimpong district, 6 more persons are added, now there are 9 persons are admitted for quarantine. 2 more persons are added at Batasia TB centre, now there are 3 persons, and 3 in Old Railway Hospital of Kurseong are undergoing quarantine. With the home coming of students and other people from other states, the number of people in self quarantine at their residence in the district of Darjeeling is increased from 517 to 563 while in Kalimpong district it is increased from 389 to 437. 

STATE

In the state 117 new cases (1 day before-110, 2 days before- 124) and 9 death (1 day before-8, 2 days before-5) and 90 recovery (1 day before-113, 2 days before-82) is recorded today.

The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in West Bengal is 2290 (1 day before-2173, 2 days before-2063) while active cases is 1381 (1 day before-1363 , 2 days before-1374) and death toll till now is 135 (1 day before-126, 2 days before-118). 

There is 72 death due to Co-morbidity while 702 (1 day before-612, 2 days before-499) are released after recovery. 

The testing of swab samples for Covid-19 in 20 ICMR testing labs is being done at a very good rate and today 5010 (1 day before-5007, 2 days before-4201) samples within 24 hour were tested that tally 57632 (1 day before-52622, 2 days before-47615) till now since day 1. 

Today 26357 (1 day before-24296, 2 days before-23296) persons are currently under home quarantine/ observation/ surveillance and total persons 94956 (1 day before-92495, 2 days before-90915) were in the home quarantine/ observation/ surveillance. 

Number of people released from home quarantine was 68599 (1 day before-68199, 2 days before-67619). 

Currently in the 582 institutional government quarantine centres there are 8146 (1 day before-6978, 2 days before-6689) persons and so far from these centres 21794 (1 day before-21022, 2 days before-19945) persons were released in the past. 

Currently in the state there are 68 Hospitals dedicated for treating COVID-19, 16 Government Covid hospitals and 52 Private Covid-19 hospitals.