Over 3,400 dengue infections have been reported in the city this year till the first week of October, with nearly half of the cases being reported in the last fortnight.
Two boroughs that cover large parts of south and southeast Kolkata like Kasba, Jadavpur and Tollygunge have reported the maximum number of cases, said an official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).
“Till about a week ago, Kolkata reported 3,404 dengue cases,” a KMC official said on Saturday.
A KMC official said earlier that 1,525 dengue infections had been reported between January and September 18.
Between September 19 and the first week of October, the city reported 1,879 cases.
The numbers could see a sharp rise in the coming days, said a KMC official. The impact of people assembling during Puja would be felt in another 5-10 days, he said.
“Some of the people who were in the crowd could have been carrying the dengue virus. A mosquito may have picked up the virus from them. When the mosquito bites a person later, it may infect the person with dengue,” said a KMC doctor.
A KMC official said that wards 106 and 109, both of which fall in borough XII, were the two wards that have reported the maximum number of dengue infections in Kolkata this year.
On Saturday, the Bengal government’s chief secretary held a meeting with officials of various districts and senior KMC officials about the dengue situation in the state.
A senior official of the state health department, who was present in the meeting, told The Telegraph that officials of municipal corporations and the districts were asked to “increase drives to identify mosquito breeding pockets and stress on vector control work”.