2 Nipah virus cases found in India's West Bengal

NEW DELHI, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Two cases of Nipah virus were detected among healthcare workers in India's eastern state of West Bengal, confirmed a local official on Tuesday.

Both the victims, a male and a female, were in critical condition, and the local hospitals were gearing up to tackle any surge in cases in the coming days, according to an online report by the Indian Express.

The West Bengal government has sounded an alert across all the state's healthcare facilities as officials are tracing everyone the infected nurses came in contact with, according to the report.

This was after nearly two decades when the Nipah virus had returned to the state, said other local media reports.

Meanwhile, West Bengal's Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam reassured the public that the state was fully prepared with a robust protocol already in place.