Mirik woman Covid free- Assam hospital discharges her

SNS, SILIGURI, 28 MAY 2020: A 40-year-old woman from Soureni in Mirik sub-division in Darjeeling district has been discharged from a hospital in Jorhat in Assam, where she had been undergoing treatment for Covid-19, family sources have said.

Shalini Mal, who is married in Assam, had been to Soureni before the lockdown and was stuck there. She, however, took a train from the NJP railway station in Siliguri on 16 May after the lock-down eased and returned to Assam. On reaching Jorhat, she was screened and quarantined in a hotel. Her throat swab samples were taken and they tested positive for Covid-19 later, reports said.

She was then admitted in the Jana Nayak Debeswar Santa Civil Hospital in Jorhat, from where she was discharged yesterday evening after two consecutive tests for the virus yielded negative results. She has, however, been asked to remain in isolation for a while, family sources said.

Back home in Soureni, nine of her family members are still in quarantine at their home. While their throat swab samples tested negative in the first round of Covid tests earlier, they are awaiting the second tests which they said could be conducted on 30 May. "We are still wondering how she must have contracted the virus. As Soureni and Mink are green zones, there is no question of her getting infected here. Moreover, all other family members here have tested negative for the virus," a family source said.