Lifting of night curfew during the festive season from October 10 to October 20, the mad rush for Durga Puja pandal hopping, revenge dining, and casual approach towards maintaining Covid-19 protocols have left the West Bengal administration once again on their toes as the number of Coronavirus cases in the State is rising.
On September 9, due to the festive season, the restriction related to the movement of people and vehicles between 11 pm and 5 am was relaxed from October 10 to 20, 2021. This has led to thousands of people hitting the street for shopping, rushing to puja pandals while breaking all the Covid-19 protocols during night hours.
Convenor of the West Bengal Doctor’s Forum (WBDF) and health activist, Dr Punyabrata Gun, said, “To be precise, it’s impossible to maintain social distance when the administration has lifted the night curfew. A month before the Durga Puja, we wrote a letter to the State health department and requested them to maintain all the Covid-19 restrictions which were there during the last year of Durga Puja but they didn’t listen to us and eased some of the restrictions. They didn’t even bother to respond. This is the reason why the number of cases is increasing every day.”
“As per the present situation, identification of infected persons is very crucial if we want to win over the situation. We need to think about more micro containment zones and make people aware of the significance of wearing masks. I think now we all should behave like responsible citizens by following WHO norms to protect our society from this crisis. On behalf of our forum, we want the governments (at the State and the central level) to expedite universal vaccination programmes for all eligible people in our country,” he added.
In the last couple of weeks, the pandemic situation in the State has deteriorated as 989 more people tested positive for Covid-19 infection on October 24. The State reported 974 cases on October 23, while on October 22, 21 and 20, the number of fresh infected cases was 846, 833 and 867, respectively.
A day before (on October 23, 2021) the figure was 974, which is 128 more as compared to the October 22 statistic when the number of infected persons was 846.
In the last three days, from October 22 to October 24, the total caseload has increased from 15,84,492 to 15,86,455.
The Covid-19 death toll too jumped to 19,055 as 10 more patients succumbed to the infection. Total active cases in West Bengal as of October 24 are 7,882 (which is 151 higher than the previous day record). The discharge rate is 98.30 per cent, while the fatality rate is 1.20 per cent.
Speaking to News18.com, State health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam, said, “Yes, there is an increase in the number of cases and we have taken all necessary steps to restrict the virus from spreading it further and trying to break the chain.”
He said, “We have set up various safe homes and announced containment zones at various places where we have noticed that the cases are on a higher side. We are alerting people and asking them to maintain all the Covid-19 norms including wearing masks. The law enforcement agencies were asked to intensify their vigil through naka checking. Last but not least, we have also increased the testing to handle the situation more effectively.”
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also sounded alert about the rising Covid-19 cases and requested people to maintain all safety protocols. “Today there is a meeting where health department officials, police, representatives from the district administration and civic officials will be present to chalk out plans to contain the virus,” health department sources said.
Medicine Expert, Dr Arindam Biswas at the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, suggested that everybody should follow ‘self lock down’ (unless it is very urgent to venture out) to stay protected from the Covid-19.
“For the coming couple of months, we have to take utmost care and only in case of emergency one can go outside. Using a mask of above five years of age is mandatory. I would like to request parents to avoid taking newborn babies out to their relatives or public places (except for vaccination). If we follow the safety norms, then only we will be able to win over the situation. The State should also keep special attention on orphanage homes and elderly care centres in providing all support to protect them from infection,” he added.
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