The rise in the number of coronavirus patients in and around Siliguri has left officials of the district health department worried with two private nursing homes earmarked as Covid hospitals on the city outskirts running almost to their full capacity.

In Siliguri, there are 115 patients at the two Covid hospitals, said sources.

Explaining their worry, a health department official said: “In Siliguri, only a few private nursing homes are on the outskirts of the city. Most private health establishments are located in busy and crowded areas. It is tough to use a hospital within a crowded area as the third Covid hospital. In some places, residents have protested even if suspected coronavirus patients are kept at nursing homes in their locality,” said a source.

The department is busy exploring alternative options and mulling on changing one of the institutional quarantine centres into a Covid hospital.

“The number of coronavirus cases is on the rise and there can be a shortage of beds at the two Covid hospitals we have in Siliguri now. We have vacated one quarantine centre so that it can be used as backup for the future,” said Pralay Acharya, the chief medical officer of health (CMOH) of Darjeeling.

The identified quarantine centre is basically a regional centre for disaster management that the state has raised at Hatighisa in Naxalbari block of Siliguri subdivision, some 20km from Siliguri town.

The CMOH also said that as Desun Hospital — a private nursing home — that was earlier used for suspected coronavirus patients is now converted into a hospital for coronavirus patients, suspected patients are now being sent to the North Bengal Medical College & Hospital (NBMCH).

The rising number of Covid-19 patients led Ponnambalam S, the district magistrate of Darjeeling, to assert that asymptomatic coronavirus positive patients could be treated in home isolation. “Home isolation has been adopted in different cities including Calcutta. Asymptomatic positive patients in Siliguri can also stay at home and get treatment, provided they have a separate room and washroom, and be hospitalised only with symptoms,” the DM said.