The flow of children visiting hospitals and getting admitted with fever, cough and cold continued today. Five such patients were admitted to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) in Siliguri today.

On the other hand, 65 children were undergoing treatment in the Siliguri District Hospital (SDH) till 12 pm today, sources said. Health department officials said beds had been augmented in both the NBMCH and the SDH.
Meanwhile, a two-month-old child from Banarhat in Jalpaiguri district died due to what doctors said was sepsis and acute respiratory distress in the paediatric intensive care unit of the NBMCH.

NBMCH authorities, however, said the death could not be linked with the latest outbreak of fever and respiratory problems among children in north Bengal. According to the superintendent of the NBMCH, Dr Sanjay Mallik, five more children with fever admitted in the paediatric ward had taken the cumulative number there to 22.

Sources at the SDH said 11 children had been discharged after treatment. The death of children suffering from viral fever continued in the Malda Medical College and Hospital. The death of a five-month-old child from Kaliachak last night has now taken the death toll to six in the past three days.

In the fresh case too, MMCH authorities claimed that the child was in a very serious condition and was brought to the hospital at the last moment. MMCH officials also said that the fever, cold and breathing problems were common this time of the year due to the changing seasons. They said it was an outbreak of some common viruses and that there was no unidentified virus or mystery illness among the children.

“Sixty-six children had been admitted in the MMCH in the past 24 hours and 61 have already been discharged after they got better. There was only one death of a child who was brought in a gasping condition from a Kaliachakbased nursing home and we could manage only an hour of treatment in the MMCH before she succumbed to her ailments,” the Medical Superintendent-cum-Vice Principal of the MMCH, Dr Puranjay Saha, said.

Meanwhile, four persons suffering from Covid-19 died in the NBMCH in the past 24 hours, sources said today. Three of them were residents of Darjeeling district, while the other patient hailed from Jalpaiguri district, the sources added