State Health official visits Balurghat Hospital to check preparedness

BALURGHAT: State Health official and officer on special duty (OSD) Dr Sushanta Roy on Tuesday afternoon visited the Balurghat Corona Hospital and its isolation centre and later attended a meeting with high-ranked administrative, Health and police officials to take stock of preparedness for tackling the spread of Coronavirus.

District Magistrate Nikhil Nirmal, Superintendent of Police Debarshi Dutta, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Sukumar Dey and Rajya Sabha MP Arpita Ghosh were present at the meeting.

Later talking to the reporters, OSD Dr Sushanta Roy assured that no confirmed case of Coronavirus infection has been found in South Dinajpur so far. A decision has also been taken in the meeting that emergency swab testing would be conducted shortly for persons who are being associated with emergency services including Health, security and journalism.

Dr Roy was also informed about the 19 quarantine centres that had been opened by the district Health department as per instruction of the state to tackle the situation in case of any emergency. After inspection and meeting with the officials, Dr Roy expressed his satisfaction about the preparedness initiated by the district.

"There is no confirmed patient of Coronavirus in the district and the overall situation is satisfactory. The Health infrastructure is good too. Administration and the Health sector have been working together and it is a good sign. I have talked to the CMOH about the swab test to be conducted soon for the persons associated with emergency services namely health workers, police and reporters," he said.

When asked about the purpose of his visit, CMOH Dr Sukumar Dey said that it was aimed at taking a review of the preparedness for prevention and management of the disease. According to him, the OSD has given some vital inputs too.