The Mamata Banerjee government has decided to set up 200 safe homes in Bengal to keep Covid-19 migrant workers with no symptoms or with mild symptoms as part of a move to stem the disease’s spread in rural areas.

“As of now, there are 5,587 active cases in the state. Of which, around 3,000 are migrant workers who are either asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. If we can isolate them institutionally, the spread of the disease to villages could be prevented,” said a senior government official.

Given that more than 95 per cent of the migrants willing to come back have already reached the state, senior officials believe if the returnees with the coronavirus are isolated, the fight against the contagion will be easier.

“More than 10 lakh migrants have already come back. Only a few thousand migrants would return by the next two days. So, it is clear that majority of the suspected patients have already been identified or swabs have been collected from them. If we can isolate positive people properly now, we could see the graph of infection going down by June 30,” the official said.

Initially, the state had considered that all asymptomatic and patients with mild symptoms would be sent to home quarantine. “But the plan was changed after the realisation that the migrants didn’t have enough space at their homes to quarantine themselves from other family members. If the spread of the disease to the family members of the migrants can’t be stopped, situation might go out of control,” said another official.

According to officials, the government is planning to develop one safe home in every two blocks. There could be a safe house for a block, too, considering the number of positive cases.

“There are 341 blocks in the state and we are planning to set up 200 safe homes. Either the existing institutional quarantine centres would be converted into the safe homes or new set ups could be arranged based on the availability of the quarantine centres in a particular area,” said a bureaucrat.

The official explained that the migrants who would be put in the safe homes would be given proper food and medication during their stay.

“Health check-up would be conducted twice a day. Oxygen saturation would be checked through pulse oximeters — a lightweight and small device that monitors the amount of oxygen carried in the body. If it comes down below 95, the person would be shifted to a Covid-19 hospital,” the official added.

A central team led by Piyush Goyal, joint secretary, Ministry of Home Affiars, that visited Covid-19 hospitals in Calcutta and Howrah, malls and some markets on Tuesday and Wednesday, has praised the arrangements made by the state to deal with the pandemic.

“The only thing to which the team drew the attention of the state is overcrowded buses and vegetable markets. We are already taking initiatives to decongest buses by introducing two shifts in government offices and plying another 400 buses from Monday,” said an official, who added that several markets in Calcutta and Howrah would also be decongested.