Siliguri civic body chief Ashok Bhattacharya tests positive for COVID-19

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Siliguri civic body chief Ashok Bhattacharya tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, hospital sources said. Bhattacharya, the chairman of the board of administrators of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) in West Bengal, was having coronavirus-like symptoms a few days back but he tested negative for COVID-19, they said.

Since then the veteran CPI(M) leader was at home on doctor''s advice, but was admitted to a private hospital in Matigara on Tuesday night with chest infection.

As the fever persisted, Bhattacharya''s swab sample was taken again for testing, the report of which came back as positive earlier in the day, hospital sources said.

His condition is stable at present and he will soon be shifted to a designated COVID hospital, they said.

Bhattacharya, 71, was visiting the coronavirus- affected areas of the city regularly to take stock of the situation and party leaders suspect he might have got the infection from there.

The SMC building has been shut for three days and it will be reopened after complete sanitisation, a senior official said.