A free coronavirus testing camp was held on Tuesday at the CK-CL community hall, organised by Ward 29. The camp took place within days of a CL Block resident testing positive for Covid-19.
“These days the authorities are not sending heath workers to patients’ houses to test their family members. Neighbours were also anxious about the situation so we spoke to mayor Krishna Chakraborty, who is also our councillor,” said secretary of Bidhannagar CK-CL Block Residents’ Association, Shanti Ranjan Pal. Chakraborty then sent health workers over.
Twenty-eight people got themselves tested from blocks like CL, BL and AL — that come under Ward 29. This included four policemen from the cyber crime police station.
“Since Covid-19 infections are on the rise a neighbour and I decided to come get ourselves tested,” said Gopinath Sarkar, an elderly resident of BL Block. “My wife wants to come too but is scared of coming in contact with infected people. It’s a tricky situation.”
Family members of the CL Block man who has tested positive came for tests too. Registration was being done on the ground floor, where residents were sitting far apart from one another, and the swab tests were being done upstairs. “The community hall was sanitised before and after the tests,” said Pal, who did not get himself tested. “We volunteers had wanted to get tested but the kits are precious and the health workers asked us not to use them up unless we showed symptoms.”
Pal said the family members of the Covid patient had been trying to contact Suraksha Diagnostic Centre to get their tests done but could not get through. It may be added that on June 30, the state government cancelled Suraksha’s Covid testing permission after investigations found its processes failed to meet basic standards.