Stroke patient dies in Kolkata hospital, West Bengal’s 1st ‘Covid victim’ in 1.5 months | Kolkata News – Times of India

KOLKATA: Bengal on Tuesday reported the death of a Covid positive person, the first such casualty in the state in oneand-a-half months. The victim was elderly, in his late 60s, and suffered several comorbidities, including cardiac issues, and was in hospital after a brain stroke.
Health experts said there was no cause for panic yet, but insisted on Covid-appropriate behaviour, especially wearing masks in crowded places and hand-washing.
The state had last reported a Covid death on November 5, a month which had otherwise seen daily case-rise in single digits. Tuesday’s victim was a resident of south Kolkata and had tested positive to Covid on November 6 only incidentally, when he was hospitalised for his other health issues. Even though he eventually tested negative to the virus, he continued to be under intensive care in the Covid CCU of MR Bangur Hospital.
“The patient was previousloy admitted to a private hospital with heart issues and having suffered a cerebral stoke,” said a health department official. “He was shifted to MR Bangur only after he tested Covid-positive. ” He was the only Covid-positive patient in the hospital since a long time, sources added.
Major wave in city or country unlikely: Experts
Bengal’s first “Covid casualty” in around one-and-a-half months — on Tuesday —was an elderly man with heart issues, who had been admitted to hospital for a brain stroke. He was shifted to MR Bangur Hospital after he was found Covid-positive. His condition kept sinking and he developed septic shock, causing his death.
Despite low case-count (there was only one new case according to the health department’s bulletin for Wednesday), the government has started taking preventive measures. Health experts, however, were hopeful that neither Bengal nor the country would seeamajor wave. “Most of us here have had multiple exposures to Covid-19 in the past two years, causing a good level of herd immunity,” said Yogiraj Ray, associate professor of infectious diseases, IPGMER. “That, along with reasonably high vaccine coverage, should work in our favour. Even if there is a surge here, it should be cases of mild infection. There is no need to panic, but those with comorbidities need to be more careful,” he added.
“Vulnerability to severe disease is expected to be less than in China, as relatively relaxed Covid regulations, and very wide vaccine coverage, utilizing a quite effective vaccine, are expected to work together to ensure better immunity in Indians. But as with other past variants, predicting with certainty is difficult,” said immunologist Dipyaman Ganguly, ascientist at CSIR-IICB, Kolkata.
The state has decided to step up vigilance, especially in genome-sequencing samples. “Vaccine and Covid-appropriate behaviour are the best strategies in preventing a spread. Genome-sequencing can be helpful to identify variants of concern and check the spread,” said public health specialist Anirban Dalui.