With a spurt in the number of Covid-19 infections in Bengal, the health department has advised use of masks and hand sanitisers again.

People are found reluctant to use masks and hand sanitisers following a steady decline in the number of novel coronavirus cases since October-November 2022. But a sudden rise in Covid-19 positivity rates across the country has prompted the state health department to issue fresh guidelines on Tuesday to follow Covidappropriate guidelines again.

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Concerned with the rise in Covid-19 infection rates, Miss Banerjee alerted her administration in this regard during a cabinet meeting on Monday at the state secretariat.

She said Covid-appropriate guidelines should be implemented again in government offices and others to prevent the deadly viral infection that had hit the country three years ago.

Municipal bodies have been asked to take sanitization drives in markets and crowded areas in respective municipal towns across the state. A senior member of the Covid advisory committee, formed by the state government in 2020, feared there are chances of huge spurt in infection rates again in coming weeks.

“People are advised to wear masks, use hand sanitisers and maintain social distance particularly in thickly crowded places. Suspects showing symptoms of fever, throat-sore, cough with respiratory trouble and weakness should undergo Covid-19 confirmatory tests,” said Dr Sukumar Mukherjee, a leading member of the committee.

“We have already recommended some guidelines on how to fight the endemic again to the government last week. A new sub-variant xbb.1.5 of Omicron was found among some Covidpatients in the state after genome sequencing of their swab samples.

This sub-variant is less virulent than that of xbb.1.6 that is ravaging other states like Maharashtra and Kerala,” Dr Mukherjee added.