Three tourists, many locals down in Darjeeling

SNS, DARJEELING,  6 JANUARY 22 : Three tourists and eight Hill residents have tested positive for Covid-19 in Darjeeling town, health officials said today.

According to the Superintendent of the Darjeeling District Hospital, Dr Subasish Chanda, 11 of the 120 samples tested positive in RT-PCR and RAT conducted yesterday. "Three of them are tourists and the others are local residents," Dr Chanda said.

According to him, the tests were conducted on people who visited the Out Patient Department, Emergency and for admission at the District hospital.

Source, however, later said that 21 persons had tested positive for the virus in areas under Darjeeling Municipality alone.

"One of the tourists is from Kolkata and he has already returned, while the other two, who are from here, but live in the UK. The others are from Darjeeling Municipality, Bijanbari, Sukhia Pokhari, and some other places," he added.

Dr Chanda also said that all of them have been advised to remain in home isolation for 17 days.

He added that there are now 20 active cases in total in the Darjeeling sub-division.

It may be mentioned here that Darjeeling had been overflowing with tourists towards the end of December and New Year, while many have started leaving the Hills after the state government recently issued fresh restrictions in view of the rising Covid cases in the state.

The fresh restrictions restrictions have closed schools and all tourist places in the state.