The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) is collaborating with health department officials of the district to set up a 20-bedded safe house for residents of New Town who are asymptomatic Covid positive patients and are working or staying in New Town but are unable to avail home isolation facility due to shared living conditions or lack of caregiver.
Even as there are other safe houses in the township including Haj House, NBCC Complex and CFL Building, these are more a resource for all of Kolkata and neighbouring districts.
The NKDA authorities are now mulling a facility particularly for the residents of the satellite township. A NKDA official said, “For setting up the facility, oxygen cylinders, oximeters, nebulisers, oxygen masks, PPEs and so on from the office of chief medical officer of health of North 24 Paraganas, have been requisitioned. Two additional doctors and two nurses are also to be assigned by the health department at the facility.”
The centre, near tank number 12 in Action Area II, is expected to cater to patients by next week. Since the only containment zone in New Town was in a construction site, the township authorities are identifying larger construction sites with more number of workers staying together.
Suspected Covid-19 cases are being shortlisted for swab testing in government hospitals.
So far, 10 such workers have been listed for the test.In addition, walk-in testing kiosk at New Town Mela Ground have also been arranged where two private diagnostics agencies will collect samples and conduct test at government approved rates.
To identify possible super-spreaders, the shop keepers of NKDA markets are being sent for rapid antigen testing at the SD Hospital.