A 43-year-old woman from Howrah who was hospitalised with pneumonia and also tested positive for Covid after admission passed away late on Saturday.

A doctor who treated her said she was admitted with pneumonia on the right side of the chest.

“There was a complete white-out of the right side, and there were white patches on the left side, too. She was admitted with pneumonia, and then her condition started worsening rapidly,” said Raja Dhar, a pulmonologist with Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI), where she was admitted last week.

Sources in the state government identified her as Priti Gandhi, from Howrah’s Bhairab Dutta Lane.

“There was pus accumulation in the lung and that is why it turned white. The lung had solidified,” said Dhar, the head of pulmonology at the hospital.

Hers is the first Covid-linked death in Bengal this year.

Her death certificate said she had Covid pneumonia.

Dhar said the woman had “bacterial pneumonia”. “She had high oxygen requirement. Her condition worsened since admission. She suffered a series of heart attacks, and had to be put on a ventilator within 10 hours of admission.”