The scare of infection has prompted many online delivery men to enquire about the Covid-19 cases in the housing societies before stepping in so that they don’t turn up outside an apartment with a Covid patient.

To address cases where online delivery men had refused to leave items at the doorstep of a Covid-19 affected family, several RWAs have gone back to the mode of home delivery through their in-house staff, which they followed last year to stop entry of outsiders inside the housing.

Many Calcuttans The Telegraph spoke to said these days the first question delivery men ask, when they call to inform about their arrival is: “Bari te kono Covid patient nei toh (Hope there is no Covid patient at home)?”

Although managing an in-house delivery system requires manpower and coordination among staff, several RWA officials said this was the only way to help both — the quarantined patients and the vendors who are scared.

Urbana — a housing complex along EM Bypass — has set up a “Covid assistance team”, made up of members of the security and housekeeping staff who have been trained.

“We have made an SOP that involves keeping a sanitiser outside the apartment where a (Covid-19 positive) case is reported. If something needs to be delivered a member of the Covid assistance team keeps the delivery at the door step and sanitise their hands. The family is informed over the phone about the delivery,” said a member of the RWA.

South City Residency, too, has devised a similar method. A table has been placed at the ground floor of each of the towers where delivery men are leaving behind deliveries meant for the affected families, a resident said. The housekeeping staff delivers the items at the apartment.

Raju Das, a delivery person who works for an online pharmacy, said: “We are asking everywhere (if there’s a Covid patient at home). If yes, then we are leaving the medicines at the main gate with the security guards.”

However, many housing societies are trying to counsel the delivery men so that they go till the doorsteps of the flats.

“Delivery men enquire at the main gate and refuse to deliver if there is a patient at home. We have briefed our security guards to explain to them that leaving the medicines at the doorsteps of a flat should not be a reason for concern...” said a member of an RWA at a housing society in Narendrapur.

A public health expert said chances of transmission were very less if the delivery person did not interact with the patient. “...How can a person be affected just by keeping something at the doorsteps of a flat or a house? Problems may arise if the affected family comes in contact and tries to pay in cash at the time of the delivery.”