Many shortlisted for quarantine after ex-BSF tests positive for Covid-19

Biswabrata Goswami

Statesman News Service

KRISHNAGAR, 17 APRIL: A sizeable number of people have been shortlisted for sending them in quarantine, hours after an ex-BSF jawan was found tested positive for Covid-19 in Nadia.

Sources placed in the district health department said, nine persons including doctors and nurses have already been sent to different quarantine centers as they directly came in contact with the jawan when he was admitted in the Saktinagar district hospital in Krishnagar a few days ago.

This apart, five family members including two minors of the infected jawan, a resident of Charatala in Chapra, have also been sent to the isolation center and their samples have been sent to Kolkata for test, a health official said.

Sources also said that another one person, a resident of Baro Andulia in Chapra, who has been attached with Khidirpur dock and his wife have been sent to a quarantine center for observation today. The man has the same symptoms as that of ex-BSF jawan and the district health department after knowing it from its ground level workers picked them up from their houses early this morning and sent them to a quarantine center.

Meanwhile, nurses and sisters attached to the Saktinagar district hospital launched an agitation against the mismanagement of the district health department last night. They gheraoed the superintendent of the district hospital demanding immediate supply of essential kits. They argued that they are being exposed directly to the corona suspected patients, but they have no proper protection.

Later, the district magistrate, Vibhu Goel reached the hospital and tackled the situation. The patients, who were admitted in the ward along with the ex-BSF jawan, have immediately been shifted to a quarantine center at Ruipukur, sources said.

As the panic gripped in the locality soon after the news spread, the district health department has begun tracking the persons who came in contact with the afflicted person. “We are collecting data from the locality about the movements of the infected person in the locality and their interaction with the neighbourers or relatives during his stay. For precautionary measures, we will keep the person who came in contact with the infected persons either in quarantine center or in home quarantine,” said a health official.

Meanwhile, the district administration and police have sealed the village and urged the villagers not to go out from their houses.

“We have sealed Charatala village for preventive measures asking villagers not to go out from their houses. We have also put up posters mentioning help line numbers across the area and asked the villagers to call at the helpline numbers for any type of help starting from food items, groceries to medical help. All help will be given to them by our panchayat levels workers and district police will also help them from round the clock till lock down is over,” a senior administrative official said adding “All roads connecting with the village have been sealed so that no one will either enter or go out from the village. Basically, we have put the entire village in quarantine.”