Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay on Monday held a video-conference with district authorities where polls were over in the first four phases and asked them to step up activities to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Districts like South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, East and West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia and Jhargram attended the meeting.

Sources said the chief secretary made it clear that authorities should ensure enough public awareness programmes to make people aware of the current pandemic situation. On Sunday, 4,398 new infections were reported in the 24-hour window in the state, the highest since October last year, making the total number of active cases shoot up to nearly 24,000 in Bengal.

“Authorities should ensure that government offices are run with 50 per cent employees. Private companies should encourage work from home,” said a source quoting the chief secretary.

Sources said the chief secretary asked district authorities to consider setting up micro-containment zones if needed. “The area of the micro-containment zone was not specified by the chief secretary. The DMs will decide on micro-containment zones as needed. It may be a single dwelling unit or a cluster,” said a source.

The chief secretary said authorities should discourage people from going out to participate in festivals like the upcoming Bengali New Year.

Authorities have been asked to restrict night movement though the state won’t declare official night curfew according to the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Hospital beds earmarked for Covid-19 patients have to be brought back in the Covid wards and oxygen supply has to ensured in all hospitals with Covid patients.

Sources said districts which participated in Monday’s video conference are not in the zones where cases were rising alarmingly. But they were put on alert so that they can handle the situation.

“Most positive cases are being reported from Calcutta and North 24-Parganas and curbs could not be imposed in these two areas as polls are still to be held. Large poll rallies in these two areas flout Covid-19 protocols, making the situation critical for the entire state,” said a senior health department official.

Of the 4,398 positive cases in Bengal on Sunday, Calcutta reported 1,109 cases and North 24-Parganas 1,047.

“The situation in the remaining districts are somehow under control so far. But the way people are travelling from these two areas to districts where elections are yet to be held for political rallies, the state could face a disaster soon if Covid-19 safety protocols are not obeyed in the rallies," said a source.

The state, meanwhile, has increased the number of tests. It has reached 40,000 daily tests and it is trying to take the figure to 45,000 per day within two days.

“We have to increase the tests to isolate positive persons to stop the spread of the virus. Right now the positivity rate is 10 percent and this is alarming. We have to bring the positivity rate to below 5 percent and for that the number of tests must increase,” said a source.