Bengal fire minister tests +ve, in home quarantine

West Bengal fire and emergency services minister Sujit Bose and his wife have been detected with Covid-19. They are in quarantine at their residence however, unlike thousands of other infected patients who have mandatorily been admitted to hospitals in the state for treatment. According to sources, a domestic help in the minister’s family tested positive recently.

Later, Mr Bose and his family members including children visited a private hospital off EM Bypass in the city to undergo tests which revealed the infection in him and his wife on Thursday evening, sources said. Mr Bose was last seen n public on May 27 when he visited Belur in Howrah after the death of a fireman due to electrocution while cutting a tree on which a livewire had fallen.

Since the minister and his wife have no other ailments, doctors advised them to stay in home quarantine, sources added. Mr Bose is the first minister in the state to be infected by the deadly virus. He is also a neighbour of the Trinamul supremo living at Kalighat.