Gaps in monitoring during the Puja and the rain on Navami and Dashami resulted in conditions that experts say are ideal for a renewed surge in dengue in the city.
Officials in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) said there is always a threat of a surge in dengue cases after the Puja because of the huge gatherings in the pandals and on the approach roads.
“Many in the Puja crowd might have been carriers of the virus. Mosquitoes biting such persons could spread the virus to uninfected people. The rain on Navami and Dashami has only added to the worries,” said a CMC official.
The vector-control teams and waste cleaners of the CMC were overburdened during the Puja, officials said. Besides their daily work, they had to clean the surroundings of the pandals.
Streets with shops on the pavements had much more waste than on a normal day.
The bamboo poles that are used to set up pandals have holes that can host mosquito-breeding sites if water accumulates in them after a spell of rain.
One does not know in what condition are the roofs of the pandals because they are inaccessible. Hardly anything can be done if water accumulates there.
The hundreds of bamboo poles that were erected to set up frames for temporary hoardings have yet to be removed. All these are potential sources of mosquito breeding.
Many Calcuttans complained that the Puja organisers have been slow in dismantling the temporary structures they built.
There is no additional human resource to deal with the added workload. “We have to work with the same strength,” said a CMC official.
Some CMC officials said the civic staff was stretched too thin. It’s quite possible for overburdened vector-control teams to overlook some mosquito-breeding sites.
“The rain on Navami and Dashami is a cause of concern because fresh mosquito-breeding grounds may have developed. The impact will be felt a few weeks from now. If there is further rain, the situation will only worsen,” said a CMC official.
Friday was overcast though it did not rain. Bright sunny days help in drying up accumulated water; overcast days do the opposite.
A CMC official said that on one year before Covid, November accounted for the maximum number of dengue infections.
Before the CMC closed for the Puja vacation, mayor Firhad Hakim had said that the number of dengue infections in Calcutta since January stood at 7,422.
Hakim had also said that 1,367 fresh cases were reported in the Calcutta municipal area from October 6 to 12, the season’s highest weekly count in the city. CMC officials did not reveal the updated dengue count on Friday.
Many dengue infections have been reported from Salt Lake and the South Dum Dum municipal areas, too.
Sugata Dasgupta, a professor of critical care medicine at the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (SSKM Hospital), said: “As long as it rains, there is always the threat of dengue infections. Keep your surroundings clean and do not let freshwater accumulate anywhere.”