About 0.63 per cent of devotees who were headed towards the Gangasagar Mela have been found to be Covid positive, informed the state minister for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Department, Shashi Panja, today. According to official sources, about three lakh 30 thousand devotees have medically been screened at various points.

Of the total screened, about 0.63 per cent of the devotees are said to be Covid positive. The infected persons however, were detected outside the Sagar Island ground and could not enter the Mela venue. The infected devotees are under treatment at various safe homes or quarantine centres opened by the district administration.

Notably, amid the threats of the coronavirus, the district administration has set up 13 medical screening camps at all the major entry points including the railway stations at Howrah and Sealdah. In addition, 13 RAT/RTPCR testing facilities, eight safe homes, 11 quarantine centres, five isolation centres, 600 bedded Covid Hospitals and six wellness centres have also been arranged along with one air and three 3 water ambulances and 85 ambulance vehicles.

The district administration of South 24-Parganas has put in place elaborate security measures to ensure the safety of lakhs of devotees who have congregated at the Gangasagar Mela. The district authorities have made arrangements for real time tracking of pilgrims for which 1050 CCTV cameras have been installed at important locations.

Also, drone-based tracking and GPS guided intelligent crowd monitoring, involving at least 20 drones, will be done through an Integrated control room. About 2100 civil defence volunteers, quick response teams, deep divers, naval divers, SDRF, NDRF and coast guards have also been deployed for disaster response.

For handling mishaps of fire, 10 temporary fire stations with 25 fire tenders of the state Fire and Emergency Services Department have been placed at strategic locations. Meanwhile, three patients were airlifted from the Mela venue to various hospitals today.

The first patient airlifted to Howrah State General Hospital was Swarnala Mondal (45) who sustained burn injuries and was initially admitted to Mela Ground Temporary Hospital yesterday. Another devotee, named Gita Devi, hailing from Patna suffered a leg fracture and was also airlifted to Kolkata. The third patient airlifted today was Rina Krishan Palyadab, who had come from Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh.