Traders in North Dinajpur are a worried lot after there were claims that the novel coronavirus had been spreading fast through currency notes and coins.
Traders have said that they are worried because they do not know how to sanitise the notes and thus keep all concerned safe from the virus.
Members of the West Dinajpur Chamber of Commerce, a trade association of both North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur districts, have sent an email to the Regional Director of the Reserve Bank of India in Kolkata, urging the official to shed light on the matter and teach traders how to keep themselves safe from the virus as they deal with currency notes and coins every day.
“In the open market, currency notes move from hand to hand, and traders have to deal with such cash on a regular basis. But they do not know how to sanitise the notes or wash them.
As such, traders are worried that they will get infected and also infect others from the notes,” the General Secretary of the WDCC, Shankar Kundu, said.
“We sent an email message to the Regional Director of the Reserve Bank of India in Kolkata today, seeking his advise on the matter and urging him teach the business community on the process of sanitising currency notes,” he added.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 tests will begin in the Raiganj Medical College and Hospital in North Dinajpur district from 15 June, officials said today. “An infrastructure for testing around 700 samples a day has been readied there. All swabs from North Dinajpur district will be tested here,” the officer on special duty for Covid-19 in north Bengal, Dr Susanta Roy, told media persons at the District Magistrate’s office at Karnajora today.
Around 220 persons have tested positive for the virus in North Dinajpur district so far. A 46-year-old Toto driver, a resident of Dakhin Birnagar in Ward 23, was tested positive yesterday.
“The arrival of migrant workers caused the rise in the number of positive cases in North Dinajpur district. There is no reason for worry as no death has been reported in the district,” Dr Roy said.