Kolkata: At a time when the Mamata Banerjee government is leaving no stones unturned to check the spreading of COVID-19, the "lackadaisical" and "irresponsible" attitude of a top bureaucrat has allowed free movement of her son, carrying the disease back from London to Kolkata for 48 hours.
An irate Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday lambasted the issue, saying such "irresponsible" behaviour is not acceptable.
The 18-year-old youth, who was detected as the first positive case of COVID-19 in Kolkata, is the son of a top bureaucrat, while his father is a doctor.
The youth and his parents were the subject of wrath of city-dwellers and netizens for not taking immediate precautionary measures despite receiving a communique from the university in London that three of his friends, with whom he attended a party there, had been infected.
The city-dwellers and a large section of government employees have questioned why he was allowed to move around freely, risking the lives of others.
The youth had returned to Kolkata on Sunday morning and went to his house at Upahar Abasan in South Kolkata. He, however, passed the screening test at the airport as no symptoms were found in his body.
Later on Tuesday, he was found positive as a carrier of the disease, when swab test was carried out at Beliaghata ID hospital. He was immediately admitted to the hospital and his parents, along with the driver of their car, were also quarantined.
But by that time 48 hours had passed since he set foot in Kolkata and came in contact with several people at different places, including a hospital and a shopping mall.
On Monday, he and his mother went to M R Bangur Hospital, where doctors advised them to directly go to Beliaghata ID Hospital. Sources said that they then went to a shopping mall in South Kolkata. Subsequently, they went to Writers' Buildings and then to Nabanna.
Though the youth did not enter the state secretariat, his mother went to her officer room housed on the fifth floor of the building and subsequently chaired a meeting with senior officials of the state Home and Hill Affairs department. It later led to tension among state government officials and some had to work from home on Wednesday.