West Bengal reported its first Coronavirus death on March 23 (Monday) as a 55-year-old railway employee passed away. The resident of Dum Dum in Kolkata had tested positive and was on a ventilator at AMRI hospital in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area. According to reports, he suffered a cardiac arrest today.

According to reports, when the elderly man suffered a cardiac arrest, doctors strived hard to revive him till 3:45 pm but failed. Eventually, the hospital authorities informed the Bengal health department about death.

The deceased had no recent history of travelling abroad but had gone to Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh his February. “The man had acute respiratory distress syndrome. We had taken proper protective measures but he died this afternoon,” a spokesperson for the hospital said.

Meanwhile, his family members are under observation in an isolation ward at a state-run hospital, state government officials have confirmed.

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With this, the total number of coronavirus deaths in the country has risen to 8. While India grapples to deal with this ongoing crisis, TMC supremo and WB Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee used the incident to trade barbs at the central government.

Mamata reportedly said that her government has placed West Bengal under partial lockdown to fight against coronavirus, but the Centre is not helping the cause much by allowing the operation of domestic flights.

Calling the operation of flights a “huge breach of shut down and quarantine protocol”, Minister Mamata Banerjee, reportedly, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a ban on all flights coming to the state.

In her letter, she wrote: “I, would, therefore, request you to kindly arrange to issue necessary instructions to stop all flights coming to West Bengal with immediate effect so that the source of spreading infection is effectively contained and lockdown in the state is implemented in true letter and spirit.”

Meanwhile, Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union Civil Aviation Minister today stated that the Centre would soon take a call on suspending domestic flights to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.

It is appalling that even when Novel coronavirus cases in India has risen to over 400 today and we stand at the brink of entering stage-3 (community transmission) of Wuhan Coronavirus, opposition leaders like Mamata Banerjee, who has always been critical of BJP Government, are not refraining themselves from playing politics over an issue as serious as this pandemic.

While Prime Minister Modi had appealed for ‘Janta Curfew‘ across India on Sunday, Mamata Banerjee had chosen the same day to distribute rice and potato in schools, triggering allegations that the Mamata Banerjee govt has decided to do this just to defy the Prime Minister’s appeal.

Moreover, the West Bengal CM had gone on to accuse the central government of ‘creating coronavirus panic’ to ‘divert attention’ from Delhi anti-Hindu riots. She even alleged that BJP killed those who died in the communal violence in the national capital. The TMC chief alleged that the BJP government at the Centre is trying to cover up the riots with coronavirus.