New Delhi, May 8:
More than 60 cases of swine flu have been reported in West Bengal leaving the state government in distress. At this point, Influenza is also a cause for concern for the West Bengal Health Department.
Sources in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation have confirmed that these diseases are on the civic body’s radar with the rise in the number of cases each day.
In a detailed Facebook post recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote, “Massive door-to-door surveillance has been ongoing since the past one month to identify Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and Influenza-like illness (ILI) cases across West Bengal. This Herculean effort has been undertaken by 60,000 specially trained ASHA and health workers non-stop for the past 4 weeks. The surveillance gives us early warning signals and is an important proactive step in fighting COVID19.”
The Chief Minister also said that more than 5.57 crore household visits have already been conducted between April 7 and May 3 of this year to identify such cases.
“872 cases of persons with SARI and 91,515 cases of persons with ILI have been identified and they all have been given necessary health advice. 375 people have also been admitted to different health facilities. 62 of them have tested positive for COVID-19 with the affected being treated at our Hospitals,” CM Mamata Banerjee said in her social media post.
The West Bengal chief minister seems confident about battling the whole situation. She also wrote in her Facebook post, “The surveillance efforts are ongoing and we will not stop till we together defeat Corona in Bengal.”
However, the opposition BJP is taking the state government to task over the issue.
BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya tweeted, “Y’day, Mamata Banerjee claimed that in the past 4 weeks, 5.5cr households were screened for SARI & ILI to pick early signs of Covid. Per last Census, Bengal has 2cr households. 5.5cr household with 4/family = 22cr, which is more than 2x of Bengal’s population. Fudging continues!”
COURTESY: India Today
