Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday appealed to all travellers to Bengal to strictly adhere to the rules to combat Covid-19, making it clear there was no space for doing “VIP-LIP (very important person-less important person)” here.

The impassioned appeal with folded hands came after she appeared to be dismayed by the way a teenage student, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, and his parents had delayed reporting to the hospital and visited multiple places before that.

“I beg you, with folded hands, please don’t be angry, don’t be sad, don’t be offended… nobody is spared by a disease, there is no discrimination by a pandemic. Like a fire, like a flood,” the chief minister said at an event at Nabanna on Wednesday.

“What happened yesterday was a real eye-opener for all of us…. An international airport, what checks there were I don’t know. Even after that, despite a doctor’s advice, I heard he delayed by a day, went here and there. So many people he came in contact with,” she added, referring to the teenager whose mother is a bureaucrat in the state home department and whose father is a doctor.

Mamata said: “You see that symptoms have come, but you roamed about like an irresponsible person. It could infect 5,000 others, from contact with you. Er thekey abibechak kaaj ar kichhui hotey parey na (There cannot a more inconsiderate act than this).

“I come from abroad and suddenly go out, go to a shopping mall, go in and out, there 500 more people are coming in contact with me, getting infected. Suddenly, I go to a park, 50 others get infected. Suddenly I go, because somebody in my family is very influential. That is why I did not get tested. I do not support this,” said Mamata.

While the chief minister was speaking in the afternoon, the tests results of those the boy had come in close contact with were awaited.

The top tiers of the government were tense as the mother had been to Nabanna and come in contact with home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay who later attended a meeting with Mamata, chief secretary Rajiva Sinha and several senior officials. Home secretary Bandyopadhyay and a joint secretary are in home quarantine.

The results, however, were negative, which was “a great relief” to the secretariat. One more round of tests will be carried out for confirmation.

Mamata said 95,000 people had come home to Calcutta from abroad in a matter of days and would keep coming till Thursday at least. She urged caution for a fortnight, for their own well-being and that of others.

“Those who are coming are welcome, but the disease is not welcome, sorry,” the chief minister said.

Mamata said everybody coming from abroad should follow the rules currently in place to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“You can, of course, come because schools and colleges are being shut down there, people in many places are being given leave. So they are all coming here, their families are here. To them, I have one request, to each and everybody…. Ekhaney VIP-LIP korbar jayga nei (There is no space for doing VIP-LIP here). The rules that must be followed in my home must also be followed in yours,” Mamata said.

“Whoever is coming from abroad, get yourselves tested, please. You are issuing statements saying you are well. But, on your own, you should isolate yourselves for 15-27 days, that’s what I think,” she added. “There is a system of WHO, you can isolate yourselves at home only if there are no such symptoms.”

The chief minister also expressed her displeasure at the media describing the case as “Calcutta or Bengal’s first Covid-19 case”.

“He came from the UK the day before, everybody wrote ‘Calcutta’s case’, ‘Bengal’s case’…. This is incorrect, this is not a case of Calcutta…. The real fact is he brought it from the UK to Calcutta…. Things happen late at night, you publish as you please,” Mamata said. “Will there be no accountability? What are the people thinking about this?” she asked.

The chief minister warned against misinformation and rumour-mongering. “If the news is false, the government will take strong action. We didn’t do so before, but we will do so now. Telling the commissioner of police, no compromise.”

Office timings

Mamata said from Thursday, state government employees would be able to leave at 4pm, instead of the usual 5.30pm or later, to ensure thinner crowds for public transport.

Parents’ first result negative

Health department officials said the swab samples of the parents of the student and the two drivers tested negative for the coronavirus. The tests were done at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases-ICMR in Calcutta, an official said. The samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, for further tests, said the official.

“However, despite the negative results, we have sent the parents and the two drivers to the quarantine facility on the new campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute in New Town,” said the official. They would be kept under observation for 14 days, he said.

The teenager’s condition is stable, the health department said.