As shoppers flock the well known stores and shopping malls of the state in swelling numbers every day, with their masks sitting below their noses or under their chins, the question that appears to be uppermost on the minds of health and medical experts in north Bengal is: How bad is the Covid-19 situation going to get in the region, where the healthcare system is already under strain?

At a time when the region is all set to open up for festivities, a recent picture of a well-known footwear store in Kolkata packed with shoppers, which is being shared widely on social media, is sending chills down the spine of many doctors in the region.

One of the most senior surgeons of Bengal, Dr Kaushik Bhattacharya of Siliguri, who expressed deep concern over the unrelenting surge in Covid-19 cases in West Bengal in the last few weeks, warned of an unprecedented spurt in coronavirus cases in north Bengal after the Puja festivities were over.

The renowned surgeon, who urged the authorities to consider the option of online pujas to avoid spread of the deadly virus, referred to the steep rise in coronavirus cases in Kerala after the recent Onam festival, and a similar situation in Spain following International Women’s Day celebrations and a football match to make his point.

“The puja committees in north Bengal must go for virtual pujas this year and deliver the prasads or bhogs at the homes of the devotees. If the people are allowed to throng pandals in large numbers, there will be a tsunami of infections and the healthcare system of north Bengal, which is already overburdened, may collapse completely.

“Unlike Kerala and Kolkata, there are not many hospitals in north Bengal with adequate beds and the state-of-the-art health infrastructure such as ventilators with ECMO facilities needed to treat covid patients during emergencies,” he cautioned.

According to Dr Sumit Bannerjee, a noted general physician of north Bengal, who shared Dr Bhattacharya’s concerns, the government should not only arrange the existing infrastructure to treat Covid patients, but also take measures to prevent the spread of the disease during the festive season.

“It is good to see that our state government is increasing beds in government hospitals to cope up with the spike in Covid cases after the pujas. But it should also take effective and adequate measures to prevent the disease. Prevention is always better than cure,” he insisted.

Dr Mukherjee felt that it would be impossible for puja organizers to maintain the standard operating procedures fixed by the government during the pujas. “The government must ensure that the committees erect wide and open pandals and allow only a long and single queue before their pandals, where the devotees strictly maintain sufficient physical distance between them. We cannot afford the post-Onam-like situation of Kerala or the post-Ganesh Puja-like condition of Maharashtra in north Bengal,” he reminded.