Coronavirus pandemic: Army doctor tests positive for COVID-19 at Kolkata's Command Hospital

An Army doctor has been tested positive for coronavirus at West Bengal's Command Hospital in Kolkata on March 29.

The officer had reportedly travelled to Delhi between Mar 12 to 17 on leave. During this period the Colonel-ranked doctor had also participated in professional discussions there.

The Indian Army teams reacted quickly to the situation and isolated the facility and identified the people who came into direct contacts of the doctor at Kolkata.

As a precautionary measure to contain the outspread of the highly contagious virus, these people were put into mandatory quarantine and were relocated to a separate facility with full administration and medical support.

Since then, the workplace and Command Hospital premises has been decontaminated with three decontamination teams overnight.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last week announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown till April 14 to combat the spread of novel coronavirus. 

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there are 1071 confirmed cases of coronavirus cases in the country and 29 fatalities have been reported.

Worldwide, coronavirus cases continue to rise dramatically, with the number of infections crossing 7 lakh on Sunday. The global death toll has crossed the 33,000 mark. 

The US has the most cases with over 142,000, followed by Italy at 97,689, China at 81,999 and Spain at 80,110. Italy has recorded the highest number of deaths with 10,779, followed by Spain's death toll of 6,803, China's 3,300 and Iran's 2,640.