33 cases found in Siliguri Sub div- CPM leader and SMC Board member test positive

SNS, SILIGURI, 21 JUNE 2020: Covid-19 cases continues to see a spike in the Siliguri Sub-Division. with 33 cases detected in the town today, 25 of them in areas under the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), while eight other cases have been found into blocks of Matigara and Naxalbari. This is the highest single day rise incases in the SMC area.

Meanwhile, a member of the board of administrators (BoA) of the SMC and veteran CPI-M leader, Mukul Sengupta, was also tested positive for Covid- 19 today. BoA chairperson Asok Bhattacharya is already undergoing treatment for Covid-19 in a private health facility here.

On the other hand, five family members of BJP general secretary of the Siliguri (Organisational) District, Raju Saha, were also tested positive yesterday. Mr Saha had earlier tested positive for the virus.

The administration has categorized 21 areas as containment zones under 11 wards, Ward 46, which has witnessed a spike in cases, has 10 such zones. More than 30 cases have been reported from this single ward in the past few days, including cases there today. Mr Sengupta, the coordinator of ward 46 was yesterday admitted in a private nursing home with fever.

Sources said among the affected today are two attendants of the Siliguri District Hospital, bank employees, and two media persons.

Several new cases in Alipurduar

Alipurduar reported a spike in Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. At least 70 new cases have been detected in the district, with 24 cases found today alone. The 24 had returned to the district from outside and were in institutional quarantine, sources said. All of them have now been admitted in the Tapsikhata Covid Hospital (Ayush Hospital) in Alipurduar, it is learnt.

A total of 46 persons, who were also in institutional quarantine, were also tested positive in the district yesterday. The number of affected persons in the district has now gone up to 176, health department sources said.

Malda CM0H tests positive

In Malda, four new cases were detected, including the chief medical officer of health (CMOH), Dr Bhushan Chakraborty. The CMOH was sent to Kolkata for treatment, where, sources said he is undergoing treatment in a private nursing home. "Other official at the health office has also tested positive for Corona virus on Friday. The CMOH office was sanitised this moming and the zonal leprosy officer was given the charge of the CMOH," sources said.

Seven more in North Dinajpur

Four new Covid- 19 cases in the Raiganj Sub-division in North Dinajpur district have sent people in panic-mode.

One of the new patients is a house wife of new Milanpara in Ward-7 in the Raiganj Municipality, and she had recently returned home from Delhi. The other three cases are in wards 2, 23 and 25, sources said. Separately, two other cases have been detected in the Kaliyaganj block and one in Raiganj block areas, sources said. The total number of Covid cases has now gone up to 243 in the district. However, according to officials of the district health office, more than 220 have already recovered so far.

Chairman of the Raiganj Municipality, Sandip Biswas, said the woman in ward 7 was taken to the Covid hospital in Raiganj, and that family members have been quarantined.