The health department is sending doctors, nurses and medical technicians to government hospitals in Calcutta, Howrah, and North and South 24-Parganas, which are the worst-hit districts in the second wave of Covid surge in Bengal.

All these hospitals have been asked to increase the number of beds for Covid patients and Swasthya Bhavan has assured them to provide additional personnel.

The doctors and others who are being deployed in the hospitals in Calcutta and the three adjoining districts are from districts where the case counts are comparatively less, health department officials said.

Calcutta has been witnessing the highest number of new Covid-19 cases every day, followed by North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas and Howrah.

Apart from attending to patients, the additional personnel will enable the hospitals to run three shifts, instead of two, and boost surveillance of Covid patients, health department officials said.

“Over 80 doctors from districts including Birbhum, Jhargram and Kalimpong have been asked to join the Covid-19 hospitals in the four districts in the next few days.The decision has been taken following requests from several hospitals for additional hands,” an official of the department said.

“In some of the Covid hospitals, including the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beleghata, doctors in critical care units and medical technicians overseeing functioning of ventilators have tested positive, resulting in a shortage of personnel,” said an official of the health department.

“We have set up a pool of doctors and others who are trained in handling Covid-19 patients. The postings are being made from that pool based on an assessment of the situation.”

A health official in South 24-Parganas who oversees the running of two Covid hospitals, MR Bangur Hospital in Tollygunge and KS Roy TB Hospital in Jadavpur, said: “We don’t have enough doctors and other personnel to tackle the rush of patients. The health department has come to our rescue by sending additional doctors, nurses and technicians.”

On Friday, the health department requested officials of ESI Hospital in Howrah’s Baltikuri to increase the bed count since it is the only Covid-19 hospital in the district.

“As many as 32 medical officers and specialists from various districts have been asked to join the ESI Hospital in Howrah immediately,” said Bhabani Das, chief medical officer of health, Howrah.

Case count

The number of active Covid cases in Bengal rose by 4,066 on Friday to 41,047. The state recorded 2,818 recoveries and 6,910 new infections during the day, resetting the record for the highest intra-day infection count yet again

On Friday, Calcutta recorded 1,844 new cases, followed by North 24-Parganas with 1,592 cases. Howrah recorded 420 new cases and South 24-Parganas 402 cases.

After five months of gradually climbing down from 37,190 to 3,110, the total active cases is now at its highest this pandemic, beating the October 26 level by nearly 4,000.