Authorities of the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) in Siliguri will issue letters to heads of departments, seeking information on the number of doctors present there.

The decision comes in the wake of controversy that surrounded the 26 medical staff, including professors, associate professors, nurses, and technicians, who travelled to Siliguri from Kolkata in one bus on 30 April.

One of the doctors in the bus, an eye specialist, has tested positive for Covid-19, while the remaining have tested negative. However, all the others in question are presently in quarantine. Questions have been raised on how so many doctors were allowed to go to Kolkata during the pandemic.

“We will issue letters to the heads of the departments soon to know how many doctors and faculties are present here right now,” NBMCH principal Prof Prabir Kumar Deb said today. A doctor in quarantine, on the other hand, said most of them had not officially applied for leave, but had gone on leave as per the duty rosters.

There are around 36 departments at the NBMCH, where there are around 243 faculties, around 60 medical officers as doctors, who directly provide treatment to patients, apart from post-graduate teachers and junior doctors. Most of the doctors keep visiting their places where they hail from in Kolkata and other parts of south Bengal.

IMCT for lockdown enforcement

The Inter-Ministerial Central Team assessing the Covid- 19 situation in three districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri, has said that proper lockdown and social distancing should be enforced at the ground level.

Iterating the importance of following the lockdown, the team leader and additional secretary of the ministry of human resource development, Vineet Joshi, said the lockdown in the region needed to be improved.

“Public awareness is very important while obeying the lockdown and social distancing because it is going for a long term. These should be enforced properly at the ground level,” Mr Joshi said at the Bagdogra airport, as he left the town today.

The five-member multi-disciplinary team had been stationed at the Siliguri Frontier Headquarters of the SSB since 20 April.

They also visited the Indo- Nepal border at Panitanki and Zero Point at the Indo- Bangladesh border at the Fulbari Immigration Check Post, apart from visiting treatment facilities for positive and suspected patients of Civid-19, the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, tea gardens, and shelter homes in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri districts.

Four of the five members today returned to Delhi in a special Air India flight. One member, Prof Shibani Dutta, who is the head of the department of health promotion & education at the All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, has, however, stayed back.

People ‘suppressed’ fever symptoms

An ongoing ‘fever survey’ in all the 47 wards under the Siliguri Municipal Corporation has revealed that many people are suspected to have suppressed fever, cough and cold symptoms.

So far, two tests conducted in Ward-42 turned out negative for Covid-19, sources said. A member of the Mayor-incouncil (health) of the civic body, Sankar Ghosh, said many people were found suffering from fever, cough and cold during this time of the year in earlier surveys.

“However, surprisingly, during this survey, hardly any such symptomatic cases have been found, which are very common during this time. It may be because people are in panic and they are suppressing such symptoms,” Mr Ghosh said, adding that a special meeting on dengue will be held soon.

Plan for Covid facility in Kalimpong

Health facilities for Covid- 19 treatment on the lines of Jalpaiguri are coming up in Kalimpong. In Jalpaiguri, facilities for both suspected and positive cases have been arranged for on the Biswa Bangla Krirangan, officer on special duty for Covid-19 in north Bengal Dr Susanta Kumar Roy said.

The health department has marked the area at Tribeni in Kalimpong for the same, while the bed strength there is likely to be around 100.

Sabadhipati writes to CM

The Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad Sabadhipati, Tapas Sarkar, has requested chief minister Mamata Banerjee to see to it that Covid-19 patients are treated in hospitals in their respective places and not sent to Siliguri for treatment. In a letter he wrote to the CM, Mr Sarkar has highlighted his concerns over the situation.