Kolkata’s heart shows Covid-19 spread pattern – Times of India

KOLKATA: There are now 15 micro containment units under Park Street-Shakespeare Sarani police stations that form the heart of south central Kolkata. But for both Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Kolkata Police, this area is serving as an example of how Covid can spread from the slums to standalone apartments and vice versa as people move along in search of livelihood where maintaining social-distancing norms is not always possible.
On Thursday, though, there was some good news for Kolkatans. While the overall number of containment units rose by 54 to 1457, in reality, Kolkata added 153 containment zones and as many as 99 units became Covid-free. “The number of Covid-free units is huge, even more than the 82 we achieved barely two days ago,” observed a KMC official.
For now, though, the civic body wants to concentrate on central Kolkata. “What was initially witnessed in Alipore or Gariahat, is now finally true for this belt too. Covid had essentially been detected in areas like Collin Lane and Royd Street with the sole exception of Short Street. At present, though, it has now spread to Camac Street, Wood Street, Middleton Street and Park Lane besides affecting a flat in a high-rise located on JL Nehru Road. The numbers, though, are limited and not comparable to some other areas in central and south Kolkata,” said a senior police officer.
According to a KMC health department official, the latest spread of the deadly virus in the neighbourhoods of JL Nehru Road, Park Lane, Wood Street, Mirza Ghalib Street and parts of Park Street has had its genesis barely eight days ago after a lull of a few days post Amphan. As part of a containment policy, the KMC has formed a special Covid response team for these areas. “Apart from conducting a comprehensive disinfection drive our team of doctors are visiting the immediate neighbourhoods of the recently found containment areas to find the suspects. We have decided to conduct special swab tests at the high-rises of these central Kolkata prime localities,” said a KMC health department official.
The official maintained that they would also conduct random tests at multiple slums located near these high-rises. “The Park Street-JL Nehru-Wood Street cases were detected gradually after some positive cases were detected from a slum on Collin Lane. This has alerted us. We are now paying attention to both slums and high-rises and devising our plan of actions accordingly,” said a senior official of the KMC health department.
New areas that came under containments units elsewhere include Adarshanagar and Karunamoyee Ghat Road in Behala division, Arya Vidyamandir Road in Haltu, Green Park in Gangulybagan, Niva Park in Bansdroni, Golf Tower in Golf Green-Jadavpur, Ramgarh, Alipore Park Road, Dhirendranath Ghosh Road in Kalighat, Kakulia Road, Chakraberia and Sankharitola Lane in Sealdah,” said an officer.