West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's brother, Ashim Banerjee, has passed away due to COVID-19 complications. He was 62.
Ashim tested for COVID-19 a month ago and was undergoing treatment at a local hospital in Kolkata. He succumbed to the infection today afternoon. According to doctors, he had certain commodities such s hypertension.
As per a report, the last rites will be conducted on Saturday following COVID safety protocols. It may be mentioned that Ashim stayed in the same house where Mamata Banerjee, 66, lives.
On Friday, West Bengal recorded 20,846 new COVID-19 cases and 136 deaths. The active caseload in the state stood at 1,31,792.
Due to the worsening COVID situation, a lockdown has also been announced for a fortnight from 6 am on Sunday (May 16) to 6pm on May 30. It has imposed a night curfew too from 9 pm to 5 am beginning Sunday night.
"To ensure health of the people and control the Covid-19 situation, we are forced to impose this. There is now an unprecedent situation in the state where the scarcity of oxygen and other medicines is increasing. To control this situation, we are imposing strict conditions on the movement of transport and other sectors for two weeks," Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said.
Meanwhile, India added 3.26 lakh new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total cases in the country to 2.43 crore. 3,890 more patients lost their lives as well.
According to the health ministry, 11 states have over one lakh active COVID cases while eight have active cases between 50,000 and one lakh. Twenty-four states have a Covid-19 positivity rate of more than 15 per cent, it said.