Health officials in several south Bengal districts are urgently scouting for private hospitals after fresh Covid-19 infections registered a sharp spike across the state in the past fortnight, with 6,769 new infections being reported on Thursday alone.

Sources said that during the first wave of pandemic last year the health department took over several private establishments to turn those into either isolation wards or Covid hospitals, but when the number of infections decreased, the government released those establishments. But now, Covid’s second wave has again necessitated an infrastructure upgrade to admit the increasing number of patients.

Bengal has 36,981 active cases as on Thursday.

“The second wave of Covid has hit us. Districts have been asked to keep healthcare establishments ready depending on the number of new cases reported,” a senior health official said.

In Birbhum, the health department inspected a new private hospital in Bolpur to convert it into a Covid hospital on Tuesday. Sources said more two such establishments will be found very soon.

“We have identified a private hospital in Bolpur. As the number of cases is increasing, we are planning to convert it into a Covid hospital. Our officials inspected the hospital in Bolpur on Tuesday,” said Jayanta Sukul, the deputy CMOH-III of Birbhum.

During the first phase of the pandemic, there were six centres, including hospitals, to take care of Covid patients in Birbhum. The corresponding figure for East Burdwan was eight. Now the two districts have one and two centres, respectively.

In Birbhum, over 350 Covid-19 cases have been detected in the past 24 hours and the rate at which numbers are increasing is alarming, an official said.

Sources said the Birbhum administration has reopened the isolation unit at the Niramoy TB sanatorium in Dubrajpur.

In East Burdwan, there are only two healthcare centres to treat Covid patients. One of the centres is at Krishi Bhavan and the other is at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital.

Sources said the two centres can treat only 100 patients. Already, 30 patients were admitted there. There is a need to augment the infrastructure in view of the rise in cases, sources added.

“We have already increased testing and will set up private facilities as infections are increasing fast,” said Pranab Roy, the CMOH of East Burdwan.

The state government has fixed a testing target for each Bengal district depending on its population and the number of Covid patients reported since mid-March.

In an order issued by the health department on Monday, all districts were given specific targets of Covid-19 tests. Right now, the testing target is 36,000 a day across Bengal, including the RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests.

“Earlier, districts were conducting only 100-250 tests per day as vaccination started. But as the Covid situation has begun to worsen alarmingly, we have fixed a target of 300-1,400 per day for each district. The number of tests will depend on the population of the district and their Covid active case trend,” said a senior health official.