The Burdwan (East) district administration today said that the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the district proved community transmission.
The district has recorded more than 1,100 cases, and 77 new positive cases.
According to the district health authority, the source of infection of more than 50 per cent cases were yet to be found but the bulk return of migrant labourers in phases from different states, is assumed to be the key factor behind spread of the disease in the far flung areas like Ketugram , Khandaghosh, Jamalpur blocks, alongside the Burdwan and Katwa civic body areas.
After a brief meeting with health officials and the police, two immediate measures were planned to combat the pandemic such as further weeklong lockdown in certain chosen pockets and also rapid antigen tests.
The chief medical officer of the district, Dr Pranab Roy said: “We have collected swab samples of 44,659 persons till Monday evening and the reports of 42,748 persons will be available to us. About 1,080 positive cases were recorded till last evening.”
The figure crossed 1,150 till midday today.
The senior health officials claimed that delay in test reports is causing inconvenience to them and paving way for further contamination as people are mixing with asymptomatic patients unknowingly and the carriers are passing the virus to them.
In Burdwan Municipality area, 238 cases were reported. Burdwan (East) has recorded 23 deaths due to Covid-19 till yesterday evening. The DM, Burdwan (East), Vijay Bharti, said, “We are planning for a fresh weeklong lockdown in the entire five municipality areas, eight Panchayat areas and in five blocks from 6 August, and this, we expect, would help control further spreading.”