Bengal patient defies advice; home secy in isolation, Mamata furious

KOLKATA: Nearly two dozen people, including West Bengal home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay and his wife, Calcutta University vice-chancellor Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, have gone into isolation after the state’s first Covid-19 case was detected on Tuesday.

A livid chief minister Mamata Banerjee rebuked the Covid-19 patient and his family for the negligence that placed him in contact with so many people.

On his arrival in Kolkata in the early hours of Sunday, March 15, the 18-year-old Oxford University student defied the administration’s advice to report to the infectious diseases hospital in Beleghata, the state’s nodal hospital for Covid-19 cases, and roamed around the city, even visiting a shopping mall the following day.

His father, a doctor, continued to see patients on Monday and his mother, Arunima De, a bureaucrat posted at the state secretariat, attended work and held meetings with several top officials.

Home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay self-isolated himself because he attended a meeting with De on Monday. Her room at the state secretariat was locked on Wednesday and every place where she was last seen was disinfected.

“Eight persons who came in contact with the Covid-19 patient’s father at his chamber in Nadia district on Monday have been sent to home isolation. Besides, six of the bureaucrat’s colleagues at the state secretariat have been asked to stay at home,” said a senior health department official who asked not to be named.

The teenager’s parents, two drivers who work for the family, and two more domestic workers have been admitted to a new isolation facility in Rajarhat.

A doctor and a health worker at M R Bangur Hospital, and another doctor in the infectious diseases hospital, both of whom came in contact with the boy, have been kept in isolation.

A senior officer of Kolkata Municipal Corporation has also been asked to stay home because he came in contact with the Covid-19 patient’s mother.

Criticising the young man , Banerjee said the incident was “an eye-opener” and ordered the compulsory quarantine of all those returning from abroad; she warned of action against those who ignore restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“He was asked to stay in isolation at home but he kept travelling. This disease spreads with contact. Such negligence is unacceptable,” she said at a government event in Kolkata.

“You return from abroad and go to visit a shopping mall or a park and spread the infection to others...{it} is just not acceptable. You do it because someone in your family is an influential person. No, I don’t support this,” Banerjee said.

“Each and everybody needs to maintain self-isolation for 15 to 27 days after returning from abroad. Nothing can be worse than a person having the symptoms of the disease moving around and meeting people,” she said.

On Wednesday, the administration tracked down persons who returned from visits abroad and asked them to stay home.

They include those returning from Switzerland, Dubai, Israel and the US. The government has shortened the duty hours of government employees and created a roster to avoid crowded buses and trains at peak hours.

Trinamool Congress MP and Bengali film star Mimi Chakraborty returned from London and Wednesday and announced that she would practice self-isolation.

A DOCTOR AND A HEALTH WORKER AT M R BANGUR HOSPITAL, ANOTHER DOCTOR IN THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES HOSPITAL, BOTH OF WHOM CAME IN CONTACT WITH THE BOY, HAVE BEEN KEPT IN ISOLATION