Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) sealed its neurology wing for at least 48 hours on Thursday after a man who had been admitted to ICU for the treatment for a head injury tested positive for Covid-19 soon after his death, health officials said.

The deceased, aged 45, had been admitted to the neurology wing of the state-run hospital on Wednesday after he fell from a terrace and sustained severe head injuries earlier this week, doctors at RIMS said.

He was referred to RIMS from Medica Superspecialty Hospital, where his swab samples for Covid-19 tests were collected as per standard practice. However, he died while undergoing treatment at the neurology wing of RIMS by the time his test result was out, doctors said.

This is the sixth Covid-19 death in Jharkhand and third in Ranchi.

“He (the deceased) was brain dead and undergoing treatment for a severe head injury in the neurology wing,' said RIMS director D.K. Singh.

Reacting to speculation that there was an attempt to hide the fact that the injured man was a Covid patient, Dr Pradeep Bhattacharya, the head of the trauma centre at RIMS, said that none of the two hospitals did anything wrong.

“The deceased was in urgent need of medical attention, and therefore, he was admitted in the ICU here (RIMS). Medica had collected his sample for Covid-19 tests as per the SoP, but he died by the time the test reports were out,' Bhattacharya said.

State health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said that sanitisation work at the neurology wing of RIMS, which is Jharkhand's premier government-run hospital, had been started on Thursday itself.

“As per the latest protocol, we will have to seal the neurology wing of RIMS for at least two days. We have already started sanitising the facility,' Kulkarni told Telegraph Online.

According to the official website of RIMS, the neurology wing has 110 functional beds and 20 beds in the ICU. The sealing of the wing is likely to be a cause for concern as this facility is the only government-run dedicated neurosurgery centre in Jharkhand, doctors said.

Thursday’s development comes a day after a portion of a girl's hostel at RIMS was turned into a micro-containment zone. Two interns staying in the hostel had tested positive for Covid-19. They had reportedly come in direct contact with five senior doctors of the hospital, including three members of state's Covid-19 task force.

According to a National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin on Friday, six persons had so far died of Covid-19 infection in Jharkhand. Three deaths were reported from Ranchi and one each from Bokaro, Giridih and Koderma, the bulletin said.

Another 70-year-old man from Simdega, undergoing treatment at the isolation ward of RIMS, died on Friday. However, there was no official confirmation on his death till Friday afternoon.