A senior Bengal health department official who had tested positive for Covid-19 died at a Calcutta hospital on Sunday, officials said.

Biplab Kanti Dasgupta, 60, is the first person with a role in the fight against Covid-19 in Bengal to die after getting infected by the novel coronavirus.

Dasgupta, a medical doctor, died at AMRI Salt Lake at 1.20am. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee mourned Dasgupta’s death.

Dasgupta’s wife, aged 58, too has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and is being treated at AMRI Salt Lake. “Her condition is stable,” a hospital official said.

The health department has sent his medical records to a state government-appointed audit committee that decides whether a Covid-19 patient’s death was caused by the coronavirus or concurrent diseases, called comorbidities.

However, this committee does not publicly name the patients it decides had died of Covid-19 — it only adds the number to the official toll.

Dasgupta, an assistant director of health services, was in charge of the state health department’s central medical store in Moulali, Calcutta.

He supervised the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE), masks, hand rub and gloves to hospitals — government and private — across the state. The central medical store is also responsible for distributing medicines among the state’s government hospitals.

Many doctors and administrative officials from various hospitals used to visit Dasgupta in connection with the procurement of equipment and medicines for their hospitals.

Besides, he visited Swasthya Bhavan, the state health department headquarters, to coordinate meetings attended by senior officials from hospitals and medical colleges.

While Dasgupta did not personally treat Covid-19 patients, his death could affect morale among the frontline coronavirus fighters in the state, the leaders of several health workers’ teams said.

Murmurs of discontent continue to be heard from healthcare workers over the shortage of PPE kits and other issues. Interns from Calcutta Medical College had issued a release last week alleging that mismanagement by authorities was pushing them towards danger.

“We have lost Dr Biplab Kanti Dasgupta Assistant Director, Health Services, West Bengal in the early hours of today,” Mamata tweeted. “He was Assistant Director of Health Services, Central Medical Stores. We are deeply pained with his untimely demise.”

In her second tweet, the chief minister wrote: “His sacrifice for the cause of ailing humanity will ever be in our hearts and will make our COVID warriors fight the deadly virus with even greater determination. My heartfelt condolences to Dr Dasgupta’s bereaved family members and colleagues.”

Dasgupta had tested positive at the MR Bangur Hospital and was later shifted to AMRI Salt Lake on April 18 when his condition worsened, health department sources said.

A health department official said that according to the state government protocol, a patient with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) who has not yet been tested for Covid-19 is admitted to MR Bangur.

The patient is then tested for the coronavirus since most Covid-19 patients have symptoms of SARI: fever, cough and/or difficulty in breathing.

If the patient tests positive, they are treated at MR Bangur or shifted to AMRI Salt Lake’s annexe building or to the Beleghata Infectious Diseases (ID) Hospital. A health department official said that those with “significant morbidity” are shifted to AMRI or the Beleghata ID Hospital.

Dasgupta, a member of the Indian Medical Association’s Behala branch, had previously served as the district leprosy officer in Murshidabad.

“We are shocked to learn about his death,” said Santanu Sen, secretary of the Indian Medical Association’s Bengal chapter and a past national president of the association.