Several quarantine centres are being set up in the Calcutta municipal area to isolate and quarantine contacts of people who test positive but lack space at home to stay isolated from others, officials of the civic body said on Thursday.
Officials of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) said they were realising that a lot more people from the city needed to be isolated in the coming days than what was being done over the past few weeks, a reason why the quarantine centres are being set up.
These centres are the first ones being opened in the Calcutta municipal area. Two quarantine centres had been established in New Town — at Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) and NBCC Square. While the CNCI campus has been converted into a Covid-19 hospital, NBCC Square is still a quarantine centre.
The state had also used some hotels in New Town to quarantine people in some cases, such as when doctors at the NRS Medical College and Hospital had to be kept in isolation.
The CMC has identified four buildings where quarantine centres are being set up. These four — located in Anandapur, Tiljala, Kasba and Behala — together can accommodate more than 750 individuals.
One of the buildings houses an educational institution, one a women’s hostel, one a yet-to-be-occupied office of a real estate company and the fourth the office of a professional body.
Civic officials said the real estate company’s office would have 350 beds, while the one that housed an educational institution would have 300 beds. “Even if a building is large enough, it cannot accommodate too many beds. Various factors such as number of toilets on a floor and the space required to maintain adequate social distancing between two beds are being considered,” said the official.
Atin Ghosh, the deputy mayor of Calcutta who also heads the CMC’s health department, said people were quarantined in at least one centre in Topsia, a property belonging to a media company.
He said the quarantine centres were being set up under instructions from the state health department. “The health department asked us to set up quarantine centres within Calcutta. We are identifying buildings where the centres can be set up,” he said. An official said the search for the centres had started about a week ago.
The CMC is identifying buildings in five other locations, where another 300 beds can be set up, said another official. The locations include Sinthee, Behala, Chitpore and Regent Park.
The CMC’s personnel have started door-to-door surveillance of homes across Calcutta, with special emphasis on densely populated areas such as slums where several people share a room and there is hardly any scope to maintain social distancing.
If any person from a densely populated place like a slum tests positive, his/her contacts will have to be quarantined. “We have started door-to-door surveillance in densely populated areas like slums. In such places, people often live in homes where multiple residents share a room. It is impossible to maintain physical distance between individuals in such homes, which is why we are creating quarantine centres,” said a CMC official.
According to the official, if the surveillance team comes across anyone with symptoms like fever, sore throat, runny nose or respiratory distress, the person’s condition will be reported to the state health department.
If the department asks the CMC to get the person tested for Covid-19, civic personnel will help him or her reach a hospital where the test is done. “If this person tests positive, she/he will be admitted to hospital and the contacts will have to be quarantined. That is not possible in a room crammed with people,” said the official.
The CMC will ensure that basic facilities such as adequate water, clean toilets, electricity, beds and mattresses are in place at the quarantine centres. Police will be deployed around the centres so that no one could step out. No unauthorised person will be allowed to step in either.
“Our central store is procuring beds and mattresses and sending them to the quarantine centres,” the official added.
