Two women and three children, including a nine-month-old, tested positive for Covid-19 in Bengal on Friday, the highest number of cases in a day in the state so far.

With the five testing positive, the number of Covid-19 cases in Bengal has gone up to 15. The state has recorded one coronavirus death.

The condition of the 66-year-old resident of Nayabad who tested positive for Covid-19 late on Wednesday was critical. He was “on ventilation support and his condition is critical”, said an official of the private hospital in southeast Calcutta where he is being treated.

A health department official said five persons tested positive for the virus in Nadia’s Tehatta on Friday. “Four are from the same family and the fifth came in contact with them. All of them are being treated at a hospital in Nadia,” an official said.

Among the five are two women, aged 45 and 27, and two girls, aged 6 years and 9 months. The fifth is an 11-year-old boy, who an official said is not a member of the family but came in contact with them.

“Three of the infected are minors and one of them is an infant. This is a vulnerable age group,” the official said. Public health professionals said children and elderly are the most vulnerable.

An advisory issued by the central government says those below 10 years and above 60 years should not step out during the lockdown.

The four family members stay in the National Capital Region (NCR) and reached Tehatta via Calcutta by train. The brother of one of the infected women had tested positive for the coronavirus after returning to the NCR from England on March 16.

“The woman was advised home quarantine there. But she ignored the advice and took a train to Calcutta from Delhi with three other family members,” a health department official said.

It was not clear how the four are related to each other.

Sources in Tehatta said the family had reached Sealdah by the Rajdhani Express on March 20 and boarded a Lalgola Passenger from there. They got off at Bethuadahari, in Naida, and reached Tehatta by an autorickshaw. The auto driver has been quarantined.

The family came under the scanner of the health department a week ago. “A female member of the family had visited a fever clinic at a government hospital in Nadia’s Tehatta. After examining her, doctors became suspicious that she could be suffering from Covid-19,” the official said.

On questioning her, they came to know that the family had come in contact with a man who had tested positive in Delhi. Health department officials in Tehatta started tracking the family and asked them to stay in home quarantine. Their samples were collected and sent for tests.

The department is preparing a list of people who came in contact with the five. Among them are the family’s co-passengers on their journey from Delhi to Tehatta.

Calcutta patient

An official of the private hospital in Calcutta where the 66-year-old Nayabad resident is being treated said: “He is critical. The report of his lung X-ray is not good. He is on ventilator. Also, Covid-19-induced pneumonia has set in.”

The man’s wife and daughter have been admitted to MR Bangur Hospital. A health department official said their samples were collected and sent for tests on Friday.

The health department on Thursday prepared a list of 442 people who came in contact with the man. More names were added to the list on Friday.

The man had gone to attend a wedding in East Midnapore’s Egra on March 12 and also went on a trip to Digha.