Home Ministry says COVID-19 situation in Kolkata & some parts of Bengal “serious”, will send teams to assess situation

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs, in an order, has said that the situation with respect of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is “especially serious” certain parts of Bengal including Kolkata and Howrah, and two teams are being sent to the state to assess the situation.

Central teams are also being sent to Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, apart from West Bengal.

In the order for West Bengal, the ministry has mentioned that “in some districts of the country, a number of violations to the lockdown measures have been reported, posing a serious health hazard and risk for spread of COVID-19 which is against general interest of public”. The districts mentioned include Kolkata, Howrah, East Midnapore, North 24 Parganas, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri. The order also noted that the violations include violence of healthcare professionals, on social distancing norms outside banks, PDS shops, market places, movement of passenger and commercial vehicles with passengers in urban areas.

The order said that if this continued, it would pose a serious health hazard and spread to other parts of the country. Two inter-ministerial teams have been formed to “make an on the spot assessment of the situation, issue necessary directions to the state authorities” and submit their report to the Central government. The Central teams will also focus on issues of supply of essential commodities, social distancing, movement of people outside their homes, preparedness of health infrastructure, hospital facility and sample statistics, safety of health professionals, availability of test kits, PPEs, masks, other safety equipment, condition of labour camps for the labourers and the poor.

They will arrive in three days, and decide on the duration of their stay depending on the situation. The teams will be led by Apurva Chandra, additional secretary, Department of Defence and Vineet Joshi, additional secretary, Human Resource Ministry. Both the teams will have a public health specialist each from All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH & PH). They are Dr. R R Patil and Dr. Shibani Dutta.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Bengal was 198 on Sunday. Sixty-six have recovered from COVID-19 so far in the state while 12 have died. Till Sunday, 5,045 tests were done in Bengal for COVID-19.