Season’s 1st Covid death in state is 43-yr-old with comorbidities
Times of India | 4 June 2025
12 Kolkata: Bengal saw its first Covid-related death this year, after a 43-year-old woman passed away at a south Kolkata hospital on Tuesday. The deceased had heart and kidney ailments, said sources. This was among the five Covid deaths reported across the country on Tuesday. While the current spike is causing mostly mild infections, individuals with comorbidities need to remain cautious as they were vulnerable to severe infections, said health experts.The state reported 41 fresh cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total active caseload to 372, most of which are concentrated in Kolkata. At present, almost all major hospitals across the city have patients admitted for Covid treatment.The 43-year-old woman was admitted to CMRI Hospital on May 28 with complaints of a two-week-long bout of fever and respiratory distress. Suspected of an infection, her respiratory samples were sent for a viral panel test and she tested positive for Covid-19. While she apparently had no existing health conditions, tests revealed her heart ejection fraction was as low as 20%. Her urine output kept declining, due to which she was given dialysis. Initially under BiPAP support, doctors had to put her on ventilation as she kept sinking."On finding sepsis indications, our medical team put up their best. But the decline in her condition, including the organ damage, was very swift. Some adjuvant health conditions were probably the cause of such a fast decline," said the unit medical head of the hospital. The death report cites acute coronary syndrome, acute kidney injury and septic shock in a case of Covid-19. Of the eight Covid-19 positive patients admitted at the hospital, the 43-year-old was the only one under intensive care.Reacting to this, Peerless Hospital chief microbiologist Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhuri said: "Whenever there is an outbreak of any infection like influenza, adenovirus, or Covid-19, there would be a few mortalities. That is the reason why the vulnerable need to remain protected." Peerless's lab detected three positive cases on Tuesday, including that of a child, who is admitted at the hospital.Critical care and ECMO specialist Arpan Chakraborty of Apollo Multispecialty Hospital said that a section of patients with comorbidities was likely to need intensive care if they tested positive for Covid. Among the seven Covid positive patients admitted at the hospital was an 80-year-old man who had heart issues."Timely detection and close monitoring in hospital are required for patients," said infectious diseases specialist Sayan Chakraborty of Manipal Hospital Dhakuria."We have three Covid patients, including one in the ICU, while we discharged two recently," said Doli Biswas, chief nursing officer of Fortis Hospital Anandapur. RN Tagore Hospital has two Covid-19 positive patients.