Seven-month-old tests coronavirus negative

A seven-month-old baby, who was put in an isolation ward at Kushtia General Hospital on suspicion of coronavirus infection, tested negative according to a test report by IEDCR.

Kushtia General Hospital received a letter from IEDCR yesterday afternoon reporting the result, Tapas Kumar Sarkar, residential medical officer (RMO) of the hospital confirmed.

The baby, affected by fever, cold, and cough -- all symptoms of Covid-19, was brought to the hospital on March 25.

Initially admitted to the pediatric ward for treatment, the baby's condition deteriorated and by Thursday had to be administered treatment for pneumonia-like symptoms.

The RMO said on-duty doctors and nurses repeatedly asked family members whether any of their relatives had returned to the country recently, but family members denied. On March 26, they finally admitted that the baby's father was an expatriate who returned to Bangladesh from Singapore on March 9 and had been living with the family ever since, the RMO said.

Hearing this, the hospital authority immediately took the baby to an isolation unit and sent nasal and throat swab to IEDCR on the same day.

Following this, everyone other than baby's mother fled hospital premises, including the father.

Kushtia district administration proceeded to lockdown the family's house on the same day.

Now that the baby has tested coronavirus negative, "We are giving the baby treatment as per disease," the RMO said.