Spike in Covid cases in slum puts civic body in spot of bother

Kolkata: A slum in Dhakuria in south Kolkata has emerged as a fresh concern for Kolkata Municipal Corporation after it has been sucessful in preventing the spread of COVID-19 virus in the slums in the city till date.

Around 25 persons residing in Govindapur slum adjacent to the rail tracks near Rabindra Sarobar Lake have recently tested positive.

"The entire slum has been made a containment zone and necesary action for stopping ingress and egress have been taken. The common toilets

and water taps that might emerge as a source of spreading the disease has been sealed. We have conducted swab tests of 100 residents of the slum on Thursday," said Ratan Dey, Coordinator of ward 93 of KMC.

The health officials of KMC are not ruling out the fact that people in the slum might have been afflicted with Covid from the highrises.

"A number of females in the slum work as domestic helps while males work as security guards, drivers in apartments or standalone houses where the prevalence of Covid positive cases are found to be reasonably high. The spread in the slum might have been because of this factor," said Dey, who is also a member of KMC's Board of Administrator.

The state government has already indicated that there might be community spread of the virus in some pockets in the city.

"The Health department has taken the matter very seriously and is doing the needful for quarantining or hospitalising of the affected persons," a senior official of KMC's Health department said.

The civic body has started offering Arsenic Album and Hydroxychloroquine among the dwellers .

The KMC is hopeful that with proper microplanning the spread of the disease will be controled as they had done in case of Bagbazar slum when 16 persons had tested

positive or in Belgachia slum where 11 persons were Covid positive.