21-month-old tests positive for coronavirus in Kolkata

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A 21-month-old boy has tested positive for COVID-19 in the city even as none of his family members exhibited any coronavirus-like symptom, a health official said on Saturday. The infant, a resident of Uttar Panchanna Gram in south Kolkata, was shifted to the Beliaghata ID and BG Hospital from the Institute of Child Health (ICH) after he tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday night, the official said.

"The child was admitted to the ICH on April 16 with a severe cough. He is stable now but we have kept him under observation at the special isolation ward of the Beliaghata ID and BG Hospital," he said.

All 14 other members of his family, including four children and two elderly persons, will be sent to a quarantine centre in Rajarhat as they had shared a three-bedroom flat with the infant, the official added.

The mother of the child is in the hospital while his father, a driver, has already been sent to the Rajarhat quarantine centre, he said.

The couple also has two daughters aged four six years, he added.

The father of the infant had visited Jharkhand on March 28 to bring back his younger brother, also a driver by profession, to Kolkata after the latter met with a road accident in the neighbouring state, the official said.

West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said two more persons died of coronavirus in the state, taking the toll to 12, adding that 23 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported in the state in the last 24 hours, taking the total count to 233.

Meanwhile, the state health department started trial runs for testing the samples of persons suspected to be infected with coronavirus at its Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) on Saturday, a senior official said.

The testing at VRDL of the samples of those suspected to have contracted the disease is expected to begin next week, he added.

At present, such samples are being tested at eight ICMR-authorised laboratories in the state.