Chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a virtual meeting today took stock of the situation arising out of the persistent rain-fall and raging dengue menace which has created panic among the common people.
The high level meeting, which was presided over by the chief minister, was attended by Chief secretary and secretaries of other depart- ments such as Irrigation and waterways, disaster management, health and family welfare, PWD, ADG ( Law and order) among others and mainly deliberated on the unseasonal rainfall and the outbreak of dengue.
At the meeting, the chief minister reviewed the situation arising out of enhanced rainfall due to a low pressure trough and asked secretaries present at the meeting to make extra effort in ensuring relief and rescue measures in flooded and water-logged areas should any exi- gency arise.
She asked the departmental heads to put in place the measures to quickly evacuate people from low lying areas which are vulnerable to inundation. She also asked for adequate distribution of tarpaulins and other relief materials to distressed persons.
She also asked for alerting the fishermen not to venture into the sea from 30 Sep- tember to 1 October.
The meeting also decided to open 24×7 control room at the state, district and subdivisions at the earliest. On dengue, the chief minister Mamata Banerjee directed administration to take adequate measures to prevent the vector-borne disease in the state.
She asked the departmental heads to ensure extra focus on clearing waterlogged areas on a war footing to prevent breeding grounds for mosquitoes The meeting also decided to continue pulse mode cleaing in urban and rural areas as well.
It was also decided to lay emphasis on proper testing and treatment in all hospi- tals.
Miss Banerjee who underwent micro-surgery at SSKM Hospital on Sunday to drain out fluid accumulated on her left knee, took part virtually in the conference led by the chief secretary Hari Krishna Dwivedi at the state secretariat Nabanna on Saturday.
Miss Banerjee who has been undergoing treatment at her residence at Kalighat since the surgery, asked Mr Dwivedi and other senior officials including Narayan Swaroop Nigam, principal secretary in charge of health, to take steps so that health workers can do door-to-door surveillance to keep watch on people staying at homes who are down with dengue-like symptoms of fever, pain in joints and vomiting.
Apart from this surveillance, she has also asked to take measures to prevent fur- ther deaths of dengue patients admitted to different hospitals and nursing homes.
According to unconfirmed sources, more than 40,000 dengue cases, including 45 deaths, have been reported so far in the state during this ongoing monsoon season.
On Thursday, a 17 year-old boy of Bowbazar in the central part of the city died of dengue hemorrhagic fever in a premier private hospital in the Shakespeare Sarani area. He was admitted to the hospital on 20 September with fever and was under treatment there.
In another case, Pratima Mondal, 52 year-old resident of Duttabad Main Road under ward number 39 in the Bidhannagar Municipality area died of dengue shock syndrome at Bidhannagar sub- division Hospital last week. She was suffering from high fever for the previous few days.
Earlier, a 66 year-old man Pinak Sarkar of AE Block at Salt Lake died of dengue shock syndrome. He was suffering from high fever and undergoing treatment in two private hospitals since 15 September. According to the Bidhannagar civic body sources, around 2000 residents in the municipality have been infected with dengue virus.
On Tuesday, Mr Dwivedi told reporters in a Press conference at the state secretariat Nabanna that that 2000 people across the state are affected with dengue so far.