Pradip Chatterjee, 59, a resident of N. S Road, Ganguly Bazar in Seoraphuli, tested positive for COVID-19 and is at present in a critical state in a Kolkata hospital. His family members have been shifted to hospital for isolation. The district administration and the health department have taken prompt measures to placate the panicked neighbours.

The district health department have shifted all the seven family members from the house to Serampore Walsh hospital in isolation. The civic body has carried out extensive sanitation of the affected house, and of the entire ward number 21. The health department with the help of the district and local administration is trying to track the areas visited by the patient.

Mr Chatterjee was employed as an assistant general manager of a private steel factory at Sagarbhagha in Durgapur. Last year, he was promoted and posted at the Kolkata office of the steel plant. On 13 March, he travelled to Durgapur for business and from there, he visited another unit of the steel plant at Borojhora in Bankura.

For the night, he stayed at a hotel on Durgapur station road. On 14 March, he returned home and met a relative who has recently returned from corona- stricken country. On 17 March, Mr Chatterjee fell ill with fever but carried on with his work at his Kolkata office and then returned home at Seoraphuli. Meanwhile, Mr Chatterjee visited a doctor and a pathology center at Bhadrakhali in Hindmotor on 24 March.

He was admitted to a nursing home at Chandanagar on 27 March. His fever surged, developed breathing distress and was admitted to a hospital in Kolkata on 28 March. He tested positive by 29 March evening. Dilip Yadav, the ruling party district president said, “I was informed that Pradip Chatterjee had come to Amrita clinic at Bhadrakhali in Hindmotor for treatment. We are gathering more information from the clinic and from the doctor who had treated him. Today, we sanitised the entire clinic and the entire ward. I have asked the local people not to panic unnecessarly as all the precautionary steps are being taken.”

Subir Ghosh, a district ruling party leader from Seoraphuli said, “Soon after the information about the detection of corona positive case, his entire house was promptly sanitised. The house have been temporarily sealed. A health team visited the family member of the victim and have shifted seven of them to isolation centre at Serampore Walsh Hospital.