West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that the COVID-19 outbreak in parts of Howrah district was very severe and asked that armed police be deployed in some of the areas of the district. The Chief Minister said that similar measures should be tried in a few zones in Kolkata to ensure people stayed at home and maintained social distancing in markets.
‘Very sensitive’
Ms. Banerjee, who held a video conference meeting from the State Secretariat with senior officials of the State government, District Magistrates and Police Superintendents, said a number of areas in several districts had been designated “very sensitive, and sensitive”. The Chief Minister, whose government has been shying away from publicly announcing COVID-19 “hotspots”, for the first time mentioned Red, Orange and Green Zones — demarcations announced by the Central government to identify areas based on the number of cases of infections recorded.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there are 170 districts identified as hotspots under “Red Zone” classification to focus attention on districts/ cities reporting a large number of cases/ high growth rate in incidence of infections. According to the Ministry, there are four districts with large outbreaks in West Bengal — Kolkata, Howrah, Purba Medinipur and North 24 Parganas.
‘Huge crowds’
“The situation in Howrah is very bad. If from transmission within the family, it reaches the stage of community transmission, then a lot of people will be affected. If need be, armed police should be deployed in sensitive areas like the Howrah market, where huge crowds are gathering and social distances are not being maintained,” Ms. Banerjee said
She referred to places like Howrah Urban, Malipanchghara, Dhulagarh, Shibpur and Sankrail as the highest risk areas in Howrah district and directed a complete lockdown in these areas. The Chief Minister also asked Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma to post armed police personnel in certain areas of the city.
“Stop social mixing, roadside chit-chats. Police should impose restrictions in markets in these areas. More than five people should not be allowed to queue up before a shop,” the Chief Minister said.
She directed officials that Howrah should be in the “Orange Zone” in 14 days. Ms. Banerjee said that Purba Medinipur is already in the “Orange Zone”.
According to the CM, in ten out of 23 districts in the State, not a single case of COVID-19 has been recorded.
Later in the day, Ms. Banerjee visited a few ration shops in the city’s Bhawanipore area and took stock of the distribution of rations. During the meeting, she reiterated that the State government would ensure that beneficiaries of public distribution systems get free food grains.
Testing ramped-up
Twenty-two new cases were recorded in the State in the past 24 hours, taking the number of active coronavirus cases to 162. The number of COVID-19 casualties in the State remains at ten. About 55 people have been discharged from hospital after the treatment. The number of samples that have been tested by the State stood at 4,211 on April 17. Over the past 24 hours, 400 samples were tested, the highest tested in a day for the State — West Bengal has been testing about 250 samples a day, at eight testing labs, including three private facilities.
Published - April 17, 2020 09:55 pm IST
