By Saibal Gupta
Kolkata, Apr 15 (IANS): The highest single-day spike in Covid cases in the state has prompted the West Bengal government to reactivate all the medical facilities that the government introduced during the peak of the Covid pandemic last year.
The state government has held a high-level meeting, asking all the agencies functioning under the state health department to get prepared to combat the Covid surge.
According to the data released by the state government, the number of new cases in the state touched 5,892 on Wednesday, which is the highest single-day spike in the state so far. State capital Kolkata alone added 1,601 cases to the state's tally.
Previously in October last year, 4,157 people got infected on a single day and so far, that was highest single-day figures of new cases.
On Wednesday, the numbers not only crossed the previous record, but showed signs of a further surge.
Interestingly, just before the beginning of the Assembly elections on March 26, the number of cases in the state was just 812 and in just a few days, it has mounted to 5892.
"There is strong indication that the number of cases is increasing rapidly and if proper measures are not taken immediately, the situation might go out of control," a senior official of the state health department said.
Considering the gravity of the situation, a high level meeting was held at the KMC headquarters on Thursday in the presence of Home Secretary H.K. Dwivedi, Principal Secretary (Health) N.S. Nigam, KMC administrator Khalil Ahmed and other senior officials.
It has been decided that Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will start vaccination in all its 144 wards across the city to speed up the inoculation process amid a surge in Covid cases since the beginning of March.
The four safe homes in the city that were closed down with positive cases showing a downward trend in January- February will soon be opened up.
"The infrastructure has been put in place so that vaccination can be carried out in all the 144 wards in the KMC from Friday. The four safe homes at Tiljala, Ananadapur, Rajarhat and Kishore Bharati Stadium in Jadavpur will be opened soon," a senior KMC official said.
The official added that the tie ups between hotels and hospitals for satellite facilities are also being revived so that the former can serve as care centres for Covid patients with little or no symptoms.
The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Eastern India (HRAEI) is hopeful of arranging at least 500 such rooms by the end of this week. A private hospital in Salt Lake has already tied up with three such hotels in close proximity to it for housing Covid patients.