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Infection among migrant workers in 2 Bengal districts trigger demand for more Covid-19 tests
One of these four patients is a 25-year-old nursing staff from the district’s Janpigur state hospital. The rest are men, aged 30, 58 and 65 years.
A day after three people, who recently returned from Rajasthan in a special train, tested positive for the coronavirus disease in West Bengal’s Malda district, another four have contracted Covid-19 in adjoining Murshidabad on Sunday night.
One of these four patients is a 25-year-old nursing staff from the district’s Janpigur state hospital. The rest are men, aged 30, 58 and 65 years.
Murshidabad and Malda districts are among the top contributors to the migrant workforce from West Bengal.
“The swab samples of these four patients were collected by Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital on May 6. The results were released on May 10. This is a cause for concern,” Dr Koushik Chaki, secretary of the West Bengal Doctors’ Forum, said.
“The state government needs to carry out more tests. More and more doctors and nursing staff across Bengal are getting infected and frontline warriors are not getting personal protection equipment (PPE) in adequate quantity,” said Dr Chaki.
The prominent body of physicians wrote its second letter in four days on Monday to chief secretary Rajiva Sinha, highlighting the issue.
“Without robust testing facilities all across the state, normalisation of all healthcare facilities cannot be resolved,” said the letter.
Incidentally, a train carrying 1,224 migrant workers from Kerala reached Berhampore station in Murshidabad on May 6. The administration collected swab samples from some of the passengers of this train and the test results are awaited.
The three men who tested positive on Sunday night, however, came from Delhi by the road a week ago, health officials said. The patients live in different villages in the Suti-II community block area. The district administration has barricaded these villages.
There are 70 quarantine centres in Murshidabad but most are lying empty, health department officials said. The number of Covid-19 patients in the district has reached five after the new detections.
“We may find a quite different number if tests are carried out extensively,” said a senior doctor who did not wish to be named.
Chief medical officer of health (Murshidabad), Dr Prasanta Biswas, said, “All four patients have been admitted to the Covid-19 hospital in Berhampore.”
Three migrant workers, who recently returned from Ajmer in Rajasthan to Malda district, tested positive on Saturday. They came in a train that also carried a large number of pilgrims who went to Ajmer Sharif in the desert state.
“Our government has made all arrangement for treatment of the patients,” Asok Das, Murshidabad district’s Trinamool Congress vice-president, said.
