Frequent Didi outings worries Abhijit
■ Nobel laureate requests Mamata to take care of herself
Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee on Tuesday expressed concern over West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s frequent visits to public places across the city amidst lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic after she put the statewide death toll at five in the wake of BJP’s allegation of cover-up on her government.
Advising the Trinamul Congress supremo to be “careful”, Prof Banerjee, who has been roped in by her government to head a high-level panel of experts to tackle the economic crisis, also prescribed a list of measures to be taken as the state government is going to ease the restrictions further by allowing the reopening of different types of markets like flower and agricultural produces despite identification of seven hotspots of the infection.
At a video conference, the Nobel laureate told Ms Banerjee: “You take care
of yourself. I am already confined at home. You are however going around everywhere. I am concerned about you.” He also wondered about various types of markets in the state being thrown open to the public while referring to the CM’s announcement.
“It will be beneficial if masks and sanitisers in large quantities are provided to the customers during their entry and exit. These are easy steps. The good results were already seen in Taiwan and Korea. Next is creation of a reporting model through a hotline and expansion of rapid tests at the hotspots for identification. Besides, the fear factor about death has to be
eradicated among the masses,” Prof Banerjee said.
Before the video conference with the Nobel laureate, the CM informed that the Covid-19 death toll rose to five from three. “These are the audit reports of two deaths which have opinions of our experts and AIIMS. The total number of active
cases has also jumped to 69 from 61 on Monday,” she added.
Ms Banerjee also showed a map of seven hotspots which have been identified by GIS mapping to track spike in Covid-19 cases. Refusing to reveal the names of the areas, she however indicated that the number may increase later.