kolkata: In the wake of the increasing number of Covid cases, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will add more teeth to its awareness campaigns and gear up its infrastructure for testing.
The civic body’s health department has already been monitoring the number of cases in Kolkata. Sources said that following a directive from the state Health department, the civic body is ramping up its testing infrastructure and its awareness campaigns.
An official said that it is vital that people wear masks in public places, especially in crowded places as was the norm during the peak Covid phase in 2020 and 2021. A health official said “Covid safety norms need to be again strictly enforced even though the current cases are mostly mild in nature. Senior citizens and persons with comorbidity are vulnerable to the virus. These people need to take precautions if they are going out of their houses.”
It is learnt that the civic body will again start its awareness drive in markets in the city where the chances of people gathering are the highest. The KMC’s health department and its market department will jointly conduct drives to ensure shopkeepers are wearing masks. “We will ask every vendor to wear masks and use sanitisers. We will also be conducting sanitization drives in market places” said an official. Big markets such as Gariahat, Lake Market, Hatibagan, Maniktala, and Lansdowne, among others, will be covered under the awareness campaign.
Further, KMC is also to ramp up its testing infrastructure which includes the conduction of the RTPCR tests and rapid tests in all 144 wards in its 16 boroughs. The civic body has also informed the state health department that it would require a fresh stock of vaccines. A health official pointed out that KMC had carried out the best Covid vaccination programme in the state since its commencement on 16 January 2021. “Vaccination was undertaken across 162 vaccination centres established in 144 wards. About 1 crore, 9 lakhs 98 thousand 906 doses of vaccines were administered” it was pointed out.