The Union health ministry on Friday asked Bengal and other eastern coastline states to prepare hospital evacuation plans and enhance their health emergency readiness ahead of a Bay of Bengal cyclone expected to hit the Odisha and Bengal coasts on May 26.

The ministry has cautioned that the cyclone’s predicted landfall over Odisha-Bengal and widespread rainfall and inland flooding in districts along the east coast and the Andaman and Nico-bar islands, may compound public health challenges already posed by the Covid-19 epidemic.

The India Meteorological Department has said a low-pressure zone is “very likely” to emerge over the North Andaman Sea and intensify into a cyclonic storm by May 24 that may move northwestward and reach the Odisha-Bengal coasts on May 26 morning.

The Union health secretary, Rajesh Bhushan, in letters sent to top administrators of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu, has urged reviews of emergency department preparedness, stocks of medicines and backup equipment in hospitals in coastal areas.

Bhushan has asked the states to prepare advance evacuation plans to, if required, move people from health facilities along the cyclone’s projected path to safe zones or to other hospitals and ensure that hospitals have adequate arrangements for their labs, medical services, and oxygen.

“It needs to be ensured that health facilities are stocked with adequate essential medicines and supplies to meet any exigencies arising due to disruption on the movement of vehicles due to high wind or heavy rainfall,” Bhushan wrote.

The ministry has also directed states to mobilise district public health and disease surveillance teams involved in Covid-19 management to look out for possible outbreaks of other infections such as acute diarrhoeal diseases, dengue, leptospirosis, malaria, associated with flooding or heavy rains.

The advisory comes amid signals of widespread Covid-19 infections in several eastern coastal districts.

The fraction of positive cases among those tested — a measure of widespread infection — over the past week has been 41 per cent in North 24-Parganas, 27 per cent in South 24-Parganas, and 23 per cent in Puri, Odisha.

The fraction should be ideally less than 5 per cent.

The ministry has asked state administrators to plan rapid antigen tests in camps that might house evacuated populations and ensure that standard precautions against Covid-19 such as masks, physical distancing, and hand hygiene are continued to be followed in all cyclone-affected areas.