A migrant worker from Purulia hanged himself in a Jharkhand hospital on Tuesday after a positive result for Covid-19 in a provisional test.

Kartik Sao, 40, father of a 12-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter, had arrived from workplace Maharashtra on May 24 on a special train, the Lohardaga civil surgeon said.

“He came to his father-in-law Balak Sao’s home in Bhandara, Lohardaga, instead of going to his village in Jhalda as his wife and children were in Lohardaga. He planned to take them along to Jhalda,” Dr Bijay Kumar added.

He said Kartik was asymptomatic but was still kept in institutional quarantine at Palmi in Lohardaga, about 75km from Ranchi.

His swab was collected on May 27 and sent to RIMS, Ranchi.

The results are yet to arrive.

On Monday night, he developed high fever and breathing problems and was rushed to the Covid-19 wing at the Lohardaga Sadar Hospital.

He underwent a swab test in a TrueNat machine — meant to test for drug-resistant TB but whose use the ICMR has allowed for Covid-19 testing.

“His report was positive. While all the other (suspected coronavirus) patients at the hospital were discharged after negative reports, he was held back as we wanted to have him tested again through the RT-PCR method from RIMS Ranchi,” Dr Kumar said.

Medical experts said the TrueNat results for the coronavirus are tentative and require confirmation through RT-PCR tests.

Hospital sources said Kartik had his breakfast around 8.30am and was in his bed during a subsequent visit by a doctor.

“When the nurse arrived to give him medicines around 11am, he was hanging from the ceiling fan at the end of a bed sheet,” a hospital source said.

Balak said his son-in-law “must have gone into depression seeing all the others discharged except him”.

Officials said a magisterial probe would be conducted.