Kolkata: It appears as if West Bengal's second Covid wave will come riding on the Assembly polls. The state government is fearful about...
Kolkata: It appears as if West Bengal's second Covid wave will come riding on the Assembly polls. The state government is fearful about the spread of the pandemic ahead of the fifth phase of the polls in Bengal on April 17. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed her concern about rising number of Covid cases in the country.
“We are still lucky that
the pandemic has not affected people much till now in Bengal unlike other
states,” Mamata said. She criticized the Prime Minister for not responding to
her repeated pleas of vaccinating everyone in Bengal ahead of the Bengal polls.
While using her mask as a chin-guard, Mamata Banerjee,
speaking at a rally in Hooghly district, claimed. “I have requested the PM to
allow me to vaccinate all the people of Bengal ahead of the polls. I wanted to
buy the vaccines and provide free jab to the people. But you (Modi) want people
to die and thus did not allow me to vaccinate people,” The Bengal CM had
written twice to the PM before the polls to allow her to vaccinate people of
the state.
Meanwhile, the state
administration in Bengal is not considering a lockdown or night curfew at the
moment.
The State Health
Secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam said, “We are not considering a lockdown or
night curfew at the moment.“ However, he did not rule out such possibilities
after the polls.
With the movement of CAPF across constituencies for the
four phases of polls still remaining, political leaders and candidates rallying
in the districts and a huge influx of political party workers and leaders from
outside to the districts and villages have raised serious concern about the spread
of the pandemic. These factors will act as super spreaders. While
travelling to various districts it was seen that the villagers, candidates and
political party workers were all violating Covid norms, moving around in the roadshows
and rallies, without any masks or sanitizers whatsoever.
The state health secretary has requested the Centre to supply
more vaccines for the state. There is an acute shortage of vaccines in and
around Kolkata. The existing stock will last for another three days at the
most. However, the state is expecting fresh supplies on Monday.
In West Bengal, the number of new cases
touched 4398 on Sunday in the last 24 hours. This is the highest spike in a
single day in the last six months.
The West Bengal Chief Secretary will be holding a virtual
meeting on the emerging Covid situation with the DMs, SPs and CMOHs pf Purulia,
Bankura, West and East Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar and
South 24 Parganas on Tuesday at 12 pm.
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