Mamata Banerjee has effected an impressive start to her renewed innings with a blueprint to contain the spread of Covid-19. Chief among the initiatives must be Thursday’s announcement to ensure a 40 per cent increase in the number of beds in all hospitals and nursing homes, the latter by and large private enterprises. The initiative will increase the existing capacity from 20,000 to 30,000 beds.

A substantial addition to the number of beds has been direly imperative after the exponential rise in Covid afflictions in West Bengal. It was indeed a painful sight to see patients waiting for beds, either sitting on benches or lying on the floor. Plans to draft medical and nursing students into the battle against the pandemic are on the anvil, and ought to help supplement the crippling shortage of medical professionals.

Closely intertwined with the dearth of accommodation in hospitals is the crippling shortage of vaccines. And it shall be a matter of regret for a while that the Chief Minister “has not received any reply from the Prime Minister to my letters”. The problem gets worse confounded as “our oxygen supplies are being diverted to other states”.

Given the magnitude of the crisis, the allegation cannot readily be dismissed. It devolves on the Centre to investigate and send supplies to the state, however belatedly. She has bared her angst with two sharp queries ~ “Why is the Centre allowing people to suffer and the younger generation to die for lack of oxygen? Why can’t the Centre spend Rs 30,000 crore for universalisation of vaccination when Rs 20,000 crore can be spent to reconstruct Parliament House?”

Among the restrictions that the Chief Minister has announced, quite the most critical ~ and terribly overdue ~ is the suspension of local train services, verily the major source of infection over the past several months. It was well-established that there would be a spike in infections; regretfully though the Railway ministry gave the green signal, so to speak, of course in consultation with the state government.

Admittedly, it was an additional mode of transport for daily commuters from the suburbs of Kolkata; but the benefits have been outweighed by the risks, often mortal. The 50 per cent cut in Metro services ought also to check the frightful spread. But the reduction in public transport will hit people hard as will the imposition of a total lockdown, not the least in a state that has a torpid economy.

The other major decision taken by the State government – of seeking negative RT-PCR test results from those entering the state – runs counter to the advisory of the Indian Council of Medical Research which has cited the crippling shortage of kits to justify suspension of tests on those who are healthy. In any event, while such a decision can be implemented at airports, thousands of passengers continue to enter the state on trains and buses with scarcely any checks.