Two Covid-19 patients died in Bengal on Tuesday — one each in Calcutta and Howrah — taking the total coronavirus-related toll in the state to four.

One of the victims was a 48-year-old woman from Howrah’s Salkia, who passed away at Howrah District Hospital. The other was a 62-year-old resident of Ultadanga, who breathed his last at NRS Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday evening.

Including the two, as many as 11 new patients tested positive in the state in the past 24 hours.

Government sources said the NRS patient was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and his sample was collected on Monday. The result — positive for Covid-19 — arrived on Tuesday.

“His wife is also suffering from respiratory problems. We are arranging an ambulance to shift her to a hospital,” the government official said late on Tuesday night.

The woman from Howrah had been admitted to the hospital on Sunday evening with fever and respiratory distress. Her swab sample was collected and sent for tests on Monday, but she died before the results arrived on Tuesday morning, an official in the district administration said.

Sources said the woman and her family had returned from a trip to the Dooars on March 13.

The death triggered allegations of mismanagement of the patient and flouting of protocols on treating suspected Covid-19 patients in hospitals.

Several nurses alleged that senior officials at Howrah District Hospital had disregarded their request to shift the woman to the ward meant for suspected Covid-19 patients. They alleged that the patient had initially been kept in the female general ward and later shifted to the critical care unit (CCU).

The nurses also alleged that both the wards had other patients, and the doctors and nurses attending to the woman did not have personal protective equipment (PPE).

Repeated calls to the phone numbers of the district magistrate and senior medical officials went unanswered.

The Howrah Municipal Corporation has prepared an initial contact list of about 30 people who had been exposed to the deceased patient in various degrees.

“The woman lived with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. They have been sent to the quarantine facility at Dumurjala stadium and their health will be monitored round the clock,” said an official of the corporation. “The doctors and nurses who treated her have also been sent to a quarantine facility.”

A senior official of a private hospital in Calcutta said on Tuesday evening that a person with possible symptoms should always be kept separated from other patients.

The official added that doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers must be properly protected to deal with a suspected case.