E-Paper
Parents, employee of infected youth test positive for Covid-19 in Kolkata
Eleven people, including members of the youth’s family and their employees, had been kept in isolation in state-run facilities after the youth tested positive for Covid-19 on March 19.
Three more Kolkata residents kept under observation in hospital tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday evening, hours after the state announced a complete lockdown in the city and parts or whole of 22 other districts from 5.00 pm on Monday till midnight of March 27, calling it “complete safety restriction”.
With them, the number of people testing positive for the deadly virus in Bengal jumped to seven. The infected people are the parents of the 22-year-old resident of a south Kolkata high-rise complex who returned from London on March 13 and allegedly roamed freely and visited his father’s shops before falling ill. The third patient is one of the maids who worked for the family.
Eleven people, including members of the youth’s family and their employees, had been kept in isolation in state-run facilities after the youth tested positive for Covid-19 on March 19. Till then, the number of infected people in Bengal was two. Two more people subsequently tested positive.
The south Kolkata youth complained of fever and cough on March 16. By then, his two friends, who are residents of Chhattisgarh and Punjab and returned from London on the same flight, had also tested positive, state health department officials said.
The youth was admitted in hospital on March 17. His father has two sanitary ware shops on S P Mukherjee Road and Ishwar Ganguly Street in the Kalighat area of south Kolkata. Residents of this area lodged a written petition with Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim and the police saying the youth and his father came to both the shops and interacted with people and the staff. The residents demanded that the shops be disinfected and people who came in contact with the youth traced.
On Sunday, 21 people were sent to isolation in hospitals in Bengal, taking the number of such people to 52. Also, 1312 people were asked to stay in isolation at home. So far 22,725 people who recently travelled have been enlisted for observation.
The government has banned any gathering of more than seven people during the lockdown. Kolkata and North 24 Parganas district, where people have so far been detected with Covid-19, will be completely locked down along with the districts of Malda, Murshidabad, East Burdwan, Nadia, North Dinajpur, West Burdwan, Howrah and all municipal towns in Birbhum district.
All public transport, taxis, auto-rickshaws, shops, commercial establishments, offices, factories and warehouses have been included in the lockdown. Only vehicles carrying people from hospitals, railway stations, bus terminus and airports and vehicles carrying essential goods have been exempted.
Also exempted from the lockdown are health services, e-commerce and home delivery of food items, courts, police, electricity supply, medical stores, telecom, internet, petrol pumps, banks, LPG agencies, grocery stores, supply of milk, shops selling meat, fish and vegetables, print and electronic media and factories manufacturing essential goods and pharmaceutical products.
The towns of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong, Siliguri, South Dinajpur, Purulia, Bankura, Bishnupur, Barjora, Midnapore, Kharagpur, Ghatal, Jhargram, Haldia, Digha, Kolaghat, Contai, Hooghly, Serampore, Chandannagar, Konnagar, Arambagh, Uttarpara, Diamond Harbour, Canning, Sonarpur, Baruipur, Bhangar, Budge Budge and Maheshtala will be locked down.
On Sunday, life came to a standstill in Bengal with people responding to the Janta Curfew. Responding to the Prime Minister’s call to express gratitude to people involved in essential services, people in most cities sounded bells or blew conch shells. Crackers were also used in many parts.
In north Bengal, where rainfall was reported in Darjeeling and Siliguri, people sounded bells or simply beat utensils on balconies and rooftops.
The government said the lockdown was being imposed under the West Bengal Epidemic Disease Covid-19 Regulations, 2020 which has been framed exercising sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897.
