With Kolkata witnessing a massive spurt in covid cases, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, too, has fallen victim to the pandemic as a large number of its staff in various departments have tested positive which in turn has affected the civic body services such as the collection of birth/death certificates and health services in KMC clinics.

A total of about 29 micro containment zones have been set up in the city where there are covid clusters but the civic body believes that the number of such zones may shoot up in the days to come given the increasing rate of infection. It has come to light that about 1000 staff of the civic body have fallen victim to covid and have tested positive.

Some of the departments are health, solid waste management (SWM), birth/death certificate registration, etc. This has led to disruption in the civic body services which in turn has left citizens in the lurch. The birth/death certificate registration process has come to a halt which has caused a worry among many since this is a vital document that has its use in several applications; especially in government-related schemes.

Similarly, in the health section, about 240 have been affected that has amounted to a severe medical staff crunch in the KMC. The KMC medical health offices and officers are playing a crucial role in containing the pandemic but of late that has taken a toll as what became apparent was the discontinuation of covid tests in several KMC health centres in the boroughs and wards. While several KMC health centres have reduced the percentage of covid tests, some have shut down.

In Borough 10, ward 93, the urban primary health centre(UPHC) is keeping its gates closed. This has caused inconvenience for many as ones who reached the UPHC to get covid tests done, today found it shut. This is forcing many to rush to private diagnostic centres to get the tests done at a considerable cost or look for nearby government hospitals which too are suffering from staff crunch.

However, mayor Firhad Hakim has sought to assure that the KMC would return to normalcy within two weeks and that he would personally ensure that people who are coming to the health centres to get covid tests done are able to do so.

The deputy mayor Atin Ghosh said that situation will improve since the KMC staff who are testing positive are also returning to work after seven days of isolation to fill up the staff crunch. Meanwhile, the civic body is making public announcements in marketplaces, asking all to keep their masks on and maintain distance between each other while buying the essential commodities