Sixty one active Covid-19 positive cases have been detected in West Bengal till noon today, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Nabanna while announcing a Global Advisory Board for Covid Response Policy comprising Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee for planning an economic revival to overcome the present slowdown due to the Coronavirus epidemic.

According to Banerjee, Bengal is the first state to come up with such an advisory committee in the country.

“Under the present lockdown, no revenue is being generated, the business has stopped, and people are in dire condition. From notebandhi, we are now in gharbandhi. In this situation, we need a futuristic plan for the betterment of the society, economic revival, and to help the downtrodden people as well as to improve the health infrastructure. This is a policy decision body that will guide the chief minister with their suggestions,” said Banerjee at a Press Conference in the state secretariat.

To start with, the board will comprise Nobel laureate Dr Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee and former regional director of WHO Dr Swaroop Sarkar while senior doctors namely Abhiit Choudhury and Dr Sukyumar Mukherjee, will coordinate with the board.

“I want eminent people with merit and foresight in this committee,” she added.

“How can we improve the economy? The money will not drop from the sky, and we are not getting much help from anywhere except for the help that is being extended by our people. We need a proper policy for combating the present crisis while moving ahead. I will personally speak to Dr Banerjee this afternoon in this regard,” she said.

Banerjee said that till noon, total Covid positive cases are 61 of which 55 people belong to seven families. There were three deaths and that too because all of them were admitted in very critical condition. She added that 13 people have been discharged. A total of 54,823 people are inhome quarantine and 3,749 released while 6889 were in 511 government quarantine centres or ‘safe houses’ and 4010 already released.

4706 new beds have been created in the newly set up 59 Covid Hospitals including four in the city. The population density of the state is very high, so our condition cannot be compared to other states and along with this many people come to Bengal from foreign countries, Banerjee said. Of the positive cases, 99 per cent have international connections, she added.

The cases have been registered from seven areas including 11 people from a family in Kalimpong (a person of this family had earlier died), five people of the family of a doctor of Alipore Command Hospital, five people from Tehatta (they had UK connection), 12 people from Egra, eight from Hooghly, 12 from Kolkata and two from Haldia. Banerjee said that tracing the history of the outbreak of diseases, namely malaria and dengue that had claimed several lives in the past, Covid would not disappear suddenly after the 21 days of lockdown.

“History tells us that the number of calamities rose and then decreased. Thus, we feel that this disease, too, will continue further. The virus that comes with the disease continues to stay for some time. The best part is that Covid patients are recovering and responding well to treatment,” she said.

Banerjee said that the state government is not opening the tea gardens immediately as experts have suggested against it and the local people are apprehensive following the 11 Covid positive cases in Kalimpong though the Government of India had issued a guideline on Saturday directing immediate re-opening.

Meanwhile, Banerjee asked people not to do politics over the Corona situation and to stop false propaganda over the Corona figures. “This is not a time for joking or doing politics. Some parties are using fake news and the health department’s bulletin to do false propaganda,” she said, adding that the state government never challenged any of the data.

“Either the state chief secretary or I brief the media, so bulletin is not released. Why is an issue being created out of this? I request such people to stop the mud-slinging,” she said.