The board of administrators of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation has drawn up new plans to curb the spread of Covid-19 across the city, particularly because of the surge in the number of cases during the past couple of weeks.

“A surge in Covid cases has been noticed across the civic area during past two weeks. On an average, around 70 cases are being reported in a day, which is really a matter of serious concern. That is why we have decided to take some initiatives to check the spread of the infection,” said Asok Bhattacharya, chairman of the BoA at SMC, and also the Siliguri MLA.

On Tuesday, Bhattacharya held a meeting with officials of district health department and representatives of the civic body.

Sources in SMC said earlier, in case a patient was identified, his house was temporarily isolated with bamboo barricades placed in front of the house. Later, the barricade was replaced by yellow ribbons to mark the house.

“However, it has been now decided that our men will put posters on the house for identification. Also, the posters will carry detailed dos and don’ts’ for the patient’s family as well as for other residents of the locality. Pamphlets will be distributed in the area to make people aware of health safety protocols,” said a source.

To ensure that the infection does not spread from garbage collected from a patient’s house, it has been decided that such households will get yellow trash bags.

“These bags will be collected and dumped separately on a regular basis. It is important that garbage from an infected family is not dumped in the locality as it increases the risk of infection,” the source added.

“I have also written to the chief minister and requested her to see that proper medical infrastructure is maintained in Siliguri for Covid treatment,” said Bhattacharya.