As Darjeeling district recorded more than 5,000 Covid-19 cases in the past over seven days, health department officials are finding it increasingly difficult to carry out contact tracing. Efforts to reduce the transmission rate requires painstaking studies of contact tracing, looking to see how many people catch the virus from those infected. Health department officials said they were, however, conducting the exercise according to their capacity.

According to the Covid-19 health bulletin issued by the department of health of the state government, the district registered 4929 cases until 8 May this month alone. Thirty-six Covid patients have died during this period, according to the bulletin.

“The second wave of Covid-19 is overwhelming the healthcare system. Active surveillance and contact tracing are not happening as expected. The contacts should be quarantined and Covid19 tests conducted. There is a serious gap in following the public health guidelines. There is a lack of effective monitoring of family members of infected persons, sometimes resulting in the other members stepping out,” said a public health specialist.

According to the health department, around 2,500 people are under home isolation in the district. According to the district chief medical officer of health, Dr Pralay Acharya, the tracing exercise was, however, underway.

“We have taken up effective contact-tracing to find out persons who had come in contact with persons testing positive for Covid-19,” Dr Acharya said. He added that the health department had asked the administration to monitor the family members of positive patients.

Last year, the health department and the Siliguri Municipal Corporation together identified many people with mild symptoms who had been skipping tests, but later turned out to be super-spreaders of the virus.

Experts stressed that with an uncurbed growth of the cases, the laxity in implementation of the guidelines and inappropriate actions would spell disaster, amid the surge in the number of daily cases. 466 new cases Meanwhile, the district reported 466 new cases of the virus today, sources said.

A total of 253 of them was found in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation, seven in Darjeeling Municipality, 12 in Sunka, 12 in Kurseong Municipality, four in Bijanbari, one in Sukhia Pokhari, one in Takdah, 14 in Kharibari, 101 in Matigara, 40 in Naxalbari, and 21 in Phansidewa.

A total of 359 cases were found in the SMC, including in areas under Jalpaiguri district. Also, today, 216 Covid patients were either discharged from government Covid facilities or they ended their home isolation period after recovering, the sources said. Four Covid patients die at NBMCH Four persons, who had tested positive for Covid-19, died undergoing treatment in the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri, sources said.

A 46-year-old person from Sahudangi, a 58-year-old resident of Pradhannagar, another 81-year-old resident from the same area and a 54-yearold resident of Rabindra Sarani died there. Siliguri crematorium plans The administration is mulling an additional crematorium in Siliguri to deal with a surge in the death of Covid patients. Sources said the lone electric crematorium being used to cremate people dying from Covid-19 at Sahudangi is overwhelmed for the past few days.

The administration had arranged for traditional wood pyres to cope with the situation. The non-Covid-19 bodies are being cremated at the Siliguri Kiranchandra crematorium. The chairperson of the board of administrators at the SMC, Gautam Deb, is likely to visit the Mahananda riverbank, near the State Guest House, near Champasari, tomorrow in this regard.