With reports appearing of a Coronavirus (CoV) patient in neighbouring Nepal the Union health ministry today has asked the state government to set up screening camps at three entry points in the Nepal-Bengal border.

The state health department headed by the chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee has decided to install camps at Panitanki, Pasupatinagar in Sukiapatti area and Mirik in order to monitor the health condition of people who enter into Bengal from Nepal using these three points along the border. Sources in the state health department said that the ministry sent the report of a CoV-affected patient in Nepal to the chief secretary Mr Rajiva Sinha asking him to set up the screening camps. Many people including tourists from Nepal come to Darjeeling, a hotspot of tourism in Bengal, every day.

As a precautionary measure, the Central government has sensitised the matter to the state government to prevent the disease in India. “Following the directive of the Union health ministry we have decided to strengthen vigilance, setting up of screening camps at three points at the border-areas of India and Nepal in Darjeeling district. No case of coronavirus patient has been reported in Bengal so far,” said Dr Ajay Chakraborty, director of health services.

“Paramedical teams under the supervision of doctors will be posted at the three points to check the health of people from Nepal entering Darjeeling,” Dr Chakraborty added. CoVs are a large group of viruses that are common among animals. In rare cases, they are what scientists say zoonotic prompting transmissions from animals to humans.

No vaccines are available so far to prevent the infection of CoV among humans. Only symptomatic treatment with IV fluid is given to CoV patients. Rattled by the reports of about 22 Indians affected with Coronavirus (CoV) in China, the state health department has alerted the chief medical officers of health (CMOHs) across districts to keep a watch on suspects showing CoV-like symptoms in their respective areas.

Swasthya Bhavan, health department headquarters at Salt Lake, has also directed the CMOHs to send the suspects to the Infectious Disease (ID) Hospital at Beliaghata in the city for clinical observation. A 16-bed separate ward has been set up at the Infectious Disease (ID) hospital at Beliaghata for the treatment of CoV suspected patients.