More than half the dengue cases in the city have been reported from 24 of the 144 wards, prompting the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) authorities to set up fever camps in vulnerable areas.
Mayor Firhad Hakim said on Monday that fever camps would be set up in places from where clusters of dengue cases had been reported and which are some distance away from ward health clinic of the KMC.
Civic officials said Ward 106 — which includes places like Kasba’s Haltu, Kayasthapara and P Majumdar Road — has recorded the highest number of dengue cases.
A report prepared by the KMC says 46 cases were reported from this ward since January. Over 800 cases have been reported from Kolkata since January and 451 of them were from 24 wards, the KMC report says.
Thirty-five cases have been reported from Ward 112, which includes Bansdroni, and 30 cases from Ward 82, which includes Chetla. Hakim is the councilor of Ward 82.
A senior doctor of the KMC said dengue had come under control in the wards that had been badly affected since January, and new wards had emerged as hotbeds of infection. Hakim mentioned a few wards that are keeping the civic body worried.
These include Ward 106, from where two deaths were reported last week, 109, 107, 117, 115 and 121.
The KMC doctor said deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, who also heads the health department of the KMC, asked them on Monday to focus more on locating and destroying mosquito breeding sites.
“Ghosh told us to spot and clean vacant plots. We will take help of the tax collection department of the KMC if we fail to locate the owners of a vacant plot,” said the doctor.
Hakim chaired a separate meeting with senior KMC officials on Monday evening.
“We will set up fever camps in vulnerable places... We will also set up loudspeakers in markets and announce what to do to prevent vector-borne diseases,” Hakim said after the meeting.
SSKM Hospital, Beleghata ID Hospital, MR Bangur Hospital and the School of Tropical Medicine have been asked to draw blood samples for the dengue test around the clock.
Health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam said the department had reserved 80 beds each at MR Bangur Hospital and Beleghata ID Hospital for dengue patients.
Fifty beds have been set aside at the BC Roy Postgraduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences for dengue patients.