Three persons, including an assistant sub-inspector of the Buniadpur Court in South Dinajpur district, who had tested positive for Covid-19, died in Siliguri in the past 24 hours.

The woman police officer died at Dr Chhang’s (Covid) Hospital last night, sources said. Two persons, a 72-year-old woman of Salugara and a 48-year-old man, died at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital today.

Meanwhile, 40 cases have been recorded in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation area in the past 24 hours, sources said.

Wardens test positive

Two wardens of the Siliguri Special Correctional Home have also been tested positive for Covid-19, and eight security personnel who came in contact with them have been quarantined, sources said here today.

Earlier, an innate of the correctional home had tested positive too, sources at the correctional home said. “Two wardens were tested positive yesterday after their swab samples were collected on 29 July. They are in a safe home because they are asymptomatic,” officials of the correctional home said.

The correctional home often remains over-crowded, raising fears of infection. While the capacity there is 200, there are 440 inmates (as of today), 400 male and 40 female. There is one male child and four female children too.

Malda reports 97 cases

Malda, on the other hand, witnessed a spike in the number of Covid cases, with 97 fresh cases detected in tests last night.

Kaliachak-I and III had 20 and 16 cases, respectively, while Bamongola had 15 fresh cases. English Bazaar Municipality (EBM) recorded only seven cases and Habibpur 10.

Meanwhile, a female railway employee today allegedly sent back the police and EBM staff as they tried to mark her quarter as “quarantine zone” after she was tested positive for the virus.

She claimed that she was in home quarantine as per orders from her office 15 days ago, but that the department did nothing for her. “Now, all the people come to mark my residence as quarantine zone,” she said.

87 in South Dinajpur

In South Dinajpur district, 87 more cases of Covid19 have been freshly detected.

One policewoman who died in Siliguri was posted at the Buniadpur court in South Dinajpur, sources said. Nine of the 87 cases are from Balurghat municipality areas, and seven from Balurghat rural areas.

Three persons have been infected in Banshihari, four in Gangarampur town and six in its rural fringes, six in Kushmandi, six in Harirampur, 13 in Tapan, 20 in Kumarganj and 10 in Hili. The total number of patients in South Dinajpur now stands at 1280, while 909 of them have already recovered.

The police officer of the Gangarampur Court in Buniadpur was tested positive on 16 July and admitted in the Natya Utkorsho Kendra in Balurghat for institutional quarantine.

After that, she was admitted in the Covid hospital and later on 26 July, admitted in Dr Chhang’s (Covid) Hospital in Siliguri. “The ASI of Buniadpur Court expired last night due to Covid-19,” the Superintendent of Police, Deborshi Dutta, said.

48 in Alipurduar

Alipurduar district recorded 48 new Covid cases today, while two persons who had tested positive for the virus also died today, sources said. The district has now seen eight deaths related to the coronavirus so far.

Covid patient flees

In the hills of Darjeeling, a man of around 55 years of age, who was tested positive for the virus and was being taken to the Tribeni hospital in Kalimpong fled from the ambulance this afternoon. Police said they are searching for him in the jungle at 3rd Mile near Jorebunglow.

“The person said he wanted to answer nature’s call and got down near Jorebunglow and ran away. He might have got scared as he is serving a life sentence and was out in parole. The search is on for him,” Darjeeling DSP Rahul Pandey said.