The third Covid-19 positive case from the steel city was reported on Thursday even as one of the two earlier young patients from Chakulia being treated at the Tata Main Hospital (TMH) tested negative at the corporate hospital on Wednesday evening.

East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Ravi Shanker Shukla confirmed the third case, saying the person is a resident of the steel city.

'The man was tested positive coronavirus positive on Thursday afternoon is a resident of steel city and had returned from Calcutta on May 11. He was in the isolation ward of the MGM Medical College and Hospital ever since returning here and finally his swab sample tested positive,” said Shukla.

The DC said the patient in question had been shifted from the medical college and hospital’s isolation ward to the TMH Covid ward late in the afternoon.

The man’s age is not definitively known, he used to work as a labourer in Calcutta and had returned to his hometown here by road on Monday.

“Though the patient is a resident of a slum, he did not go home and instead came to MGM Medical College and Hospital at Sakchi and requested for a Covid test, given his health. He was kept in the hospital’s isolation ward with 61 other suspected persons. His swab sample had been taken for a test on Monday and eventually he tested positive on Thursday afternoon,” said a senior health officer.

Earlier on Tuesday, a youth and a girl from Chakulia block in Ghatshila sub-division of the district, were tested positive and put in the TMH’s Covid ward. Thirteen other Chakulia residents, suspected to have come in contact with the duo, were also put in an isolation ward at the TMH.

The girl tested negative in the virology lab of the TMH on Wednesday evening.

The district health authorities maintained that they will consider the girl’s test report genuine if it comes from the virology lab at the state-run MGM Medical College only.

However, TMH has the same RT-PCR machine like the ones installed at the medical college's virology lab.

District civil surgeon Dr Maheshwar Prasad said he was aware that one of the two Covid patients admitted at the TMH on Tuesday tested negative at the virology lab of the TMH. “But we do not take into account the test conducted by the TMH. We will only consider the test done by the MGM Medical College's virology lab. Also, the patient who has tested negative will have to undergo more tests before being finally declared Covid-free.”

A member of the doctors’ fraternity in the city wondered about the district health department’s stand on the TMH. “On one hand, they say TMH is the best treatment centre for Covid-19, on the other hand they won’t accept a report of TMH. What is this?”