The first Covid-19 positive case was reported in West Bengal today, even as the country saw its third coronavirus fatality with a 63-year-old dying in Mumbai, while the number of positive cases rose sharply to 137 ~ not counting the Bengal case ~ and more parts of the country shut down to stem the spread of the infection.

The director of health services, West Bengal, Dr Ajoy Chakraborty, said a Kolkata-based youth with recent travel history to nCoV-affected London was brought to the state-run ID Hospital at Beliaghata today and his swab sample tested positive at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD). The patient has been kept in the quarantine ward of the hospital for close observation.

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His parents and the driver of the car in which he was travelling in Kolkata have also been quarantined. The youth had attended a party in London and apparently come in contact with a nCoV carrier there. The youth didn’t have any manifestation of the disease, a health department official said. Meanwhile, a 64-year-old man from Mumbai with a travel history to Dubai on Tuesday became the first victim of novel coronavirus infection from Maharashtra, which has reported the highest number of COVID- 19 cases in the country at 39.

This is the third COVID- 19 fatality in the country. The government, which on Monday banned the entry of passengers from EU countries, Turkey and the UK from March 18 till March 31, also closed its doors to those from Afghanistan, the Philippines and Malaysia with immediate effect, according to an additional travel advisory.

Unheard of till just a few days ago, ‘social distancing’ was the buzz-term as public spaces, including monuments such as the Taj Mahal, shut down and many thousands of people prepared to spend the next few days confined to home, working or studying online. The Maharashtra patient, whose wife also tested positive and is stable, was in a private hospital for five days and subsequently referred to Mumbai’s Kasturba Hospital, officials said.

He reportedly did not disclose his travel history when he was admitted to the private hospital. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the exact cause behind his death is being ascertained as he was also suffering from various ailments. Earlier, a 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi in Karnataka with a travel history to Saudi Arabia and a 68-year-old woman in Delhi died after they tested positive for the infection that according to Johns Hopkins University has infected 1,82,000 people and claimed over 7,100 lives globally.

The 137positive cases, 23 more since Monday night, have been reported from 15 states and union territories. The number includes 24 foreign nationals. Among the new cases are two people from the suburb of Noida bordering the national capital. One recently returned from France and is already in isolation. The other has also been quarantined, officials said.

In Bengaluru, two more persons tested positive for COVID-19 late Monday night. “We have got 2 more #COVID2019 cases in Karnataka taking the total number of confirmed cases to 10,” Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Minister B Sriramulu tweeted. Both are admitted to a designated isolation hospital.

(SNS & AGENCIES)