West Bengal reports 5 new Covid cases, 1 death and 5 cases in Rajasthan

Five fresh Covid-19 cases have been reported from West Bengal during the last 24 hours. Among the five, three have been hospitalised, while two are under home isolation. Among the three hospitalised, one is a six-month-old child, who came to West Bengal from Bihar with his parents. The child is currently on ventilation.

The other two who are have been hospitalised reportedly have comorbidities, informed sources from the state health department.

The sources also said the genome sequencing of all five patients will be done to trace whether these are cases of the new Covid sub-variant JN.1. The forthcoming festival seasons of Christmas and New Year, which might result in the gathering of large numbers of people at one place and time, have become a major concern for the health department.

Department sources said since 20 December onward, there has been renewed stress on conducting RT-PCR tests following a directive from chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi. From Wednesday morning to Thursday evening, a total of 193 RT-PCR tests were conducted.

Sources added that as a matter of precaution, keeping the forthcoming festive season in mind, the state government has already directed a couple of state-run hospitals to reserve some beds, including some in the ICU, for those testing Covid-19 positive.

Meanwhile, a patient from Dausa in Rajasthan, who had tested Covid positive, has passed away, confirmed medical officials on Friday, adding that five others have been detected positive.

As per health officials, Babulal Meena (48) of Dausa was admitted to Jaipur’s TB hospital on 4 December, and discharged on 14 December. However, he was again admitted on 19 December when he tested positive for Covid-19, and died the same day.

Meanwhile, five patients have tested positive for Covid-19 in the state in the last two days. Two patients tested positive on Wednesday, 20 December, while on Thursday, three new cases from Bharatpur, Dausa and Jhunjhunu, including a 16-day-old baby, tested positive. Samples of these patents have been sent for genome sequencing, confirmed officials.