Darjeeling district authorities’ efforts to earmark two private nursing homes for suspected Covid-19 patients have run into resistance from local populations, who fear a spread of the infection in the neighbourhoods.

In densely populated Pradhannagar, the local CPM councillor and the Siliguri deputy mayor joined the protests against suspected Covid-19 cases being isolated at Medica North Bengal Clinic.

In Kawakhali, the authorities of Desun Hospital were themselves accused of trying to stall the government move — apart from the local protests — prompting the arrest of two management staff. Nursing home sources have denied the charges of non-cooperation.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and senior officials have right from the outset stressed that both government and private healthcare facilities need to be drafted into the battle if the outbreak is to be contained.

A senior state health department official said: “The situation is very difficult (in Siliguri) as we need to have three types of healthcare establishments: one for confirmed Covid-19 patients, one for suspected cases, and the other type for all other patients.”

When senior Calcutta-based doctors Abhijit Chowdhury and G.K. Dhali had arrived in Siliguri last week to monitor the arrangements to fight the pandemic, it was decided that confirmed and suspected patients would be isolated in private facilities.

The district administration chose Dr Chhang’s Super Specialty Hospital, located at Himachal Bihar in Matigara block on the northwestern parts of Siliguri, for confirmed Covid-19 patients.

All those who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus were shifted there and some of them are still under treatment.

“All suspected patients will be taken to Medica and their swab samples tested. Those who test positive will be sent to Chhang’s while those found negative will be sent to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) and other facilities for treatment,” Chowdhury had said after his visit.

But the protesters in Pradhannagar insisted that the suspected coronavirus patients be taken to some other private health establishment at a less densely populated area on the city’s outskirts.

“People reacted in such a manner out of panic. They should understand that we need private hospitals for the suspected Covid-19 patients and should cooperate,” Chowdhury told The Telegraph.

“The state is putting in its best efforts, and so are the doctors and paramedics.”

The protests at Pradhannagar forced the administration to scout for some other nursing home. They zeroed in on Desun in Kawakhali, a locality in the city’s southwest that is less densely populated than Pradhannagar and closer to the NBMCH.

But late on Sunday evening, a group of residents assembled and protested against the choice.

“We hope the matter will be resolved by Tuesday. For now, we are sending suspected coronavirus patients to home quarantine or to the quarantine centres at Hatighisa in Naxalbari block,” said Pralay Acharya, chief medical officer of health, Darjeeling district.

“Once a hospital is identified for such patients, they will be shifted there for treatment.”

Kunwar Bhusan Singh, deputy commissioner (west) with Siliguri Metropolitan Police, accused the Desun authorities of failing to cooperate after the administration requisitioned the nursing home.

“They did not shift their patients elsewhere. We have received a complaint from the district magistrate and two of their management staff have been arrested,” Singh said.

Sources at the nursing home denied the charge and said they had been shifting the patients.

“We followed the administration’s instructions. It was taking some time as we needed to locate the hospitals and nursing homes where our patients could be shifted,” a source said.

A senior doctor posted at the NBMCH explained why the suspected cases needed to be shifted to private facilities.

“There were reports that suspected and coronavirus-positive patients had been kept together at the NBMCH, and doctors like Abhijit Chowdhury had expressed concern about it,” he said.

“So it was decided to segregate the patients in separate facilities. But the protests have halted the plan.”

He added: “Suspected coronavirus cases tend to outnumber positive cases.”

Currently, five suspected patients are under treatment at the NBMCH.

North Bengal has so far witnessed a single death from confirmed Covid-19, that of a woman in Kalimpong. A railway employee from Siliguri, who was suspected to be infected with the coronavirus, too has died.

About 15 people have tested positive in the region so far. Seven of them have recovered and been discharged.