Kolkata, May 15 (IANS): On a day when the state announced a nearly-lockdown condition to fight the spike in covid cases in the state for the next 15 days, chief minister Mamata Banerjee lost her younger brother who was battling for life in a private hospital for the last one month.

Ashim Banerjee, the chief minister's younger brother, died on Saturday morning after being detected with Covid-19 last month, the hospital said in a statement.

Banerjee, 62, was undergoing treatment at the hospital for the past one month, sources in the hospital said.

"He was detected with Covid-19 last month and was undergoing treatment for almost a month now. He had certain co-morbidities such as hypertension. He died at 9.20 am in the morning," a doctor in the hospital said.

His last rites will be performed at Nimtala cremation ground on Sunday following Covid protocols.

Not only Ashim Banerjee but on the same day the pandemic took the lives of five doctors across the state. The doctors who lost their lives are well-known pathologist Dr Subir Kumar Dutta (90), renowned physician from Barasat, Dr Utpal Sengupta (in his 70s), surgeon Dr Satish Ghata (late 70s), Dr Sandipan Mandal (37) of Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital, and gynaecologist Dr Dilip Chakraborty.

West Bengal registered its highest single-day spike of 20,846 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the tally to 10,94,802, the health department said in its bulletin on Friday.

The toll rose to 12,993 after 136 more people, including five eminent doctors, succumbed to the infection, the bulletin said.

Of the 136 deaths, 67 were due to co-morbidities where Covid-19 was incidental. The North 24 Parganas district accounted for 42 fatalities and Kolkata 34.