The Bengal government will undertake a three-day survey starting from Tuesday to assess whether Covid-19 cases are silently spreading in the state in the backdrop of a rising number of infections in some parts of the country, including Delhi.

"The survey, which is known as the sentinel survey, will be carried out in all the districts of the state. Patients visiting the medical colleges, district hospitals and the subdivisional hospitals with any kind of ailments will be asked to give samples for Covid-19 tests. Each of the testing centres in the districts will try to conduct 400 tests during this period,” said a senior government official.

According to sources, the survey will be conducted as a part of the state’s preparedness for a possible fourth wave of the pandemic after cases started rising in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, among others.

Senior government officials said that advance preparations for a possible fourth wave in advance was crucial because it would help the state restore Covid-19 facilities which were closed down, mostly from February this year after the number of infections of the third wave came down significantly.

“Several private hospitals requisitioned for Covid-19 patients have been released. Several Covid-19 wards in government hospitals have also started normal service. If we find out that Covid-19 cases are rising in the state, steps would be initiated to restore the facilities again,” said another official.

A section of officials also said that finding out the ground reality was very important as several steps were needed to be taken in advance to check spread of the disease.

“For example, these days about 9,000 tests are being conducted daily... If the cases are found to be rising, the number of tests have to be increased. During the peak of the third wave, more than 70,000 tests were conducted,” said a source.

A section of officials said that there are signs that the number of Covid-19 infections was slowly rising in the state.

On April 19, the number of new Covid-19 cases was 23. The number reached 31 on April 23 and 41 on April 24.

“Though the numbers are not threatening at this moment, the trend is mostly going upwards... The survey will give us a better picture on where we stand right now in the state,” said a source.

Covid numbers

Bengal on Monday reported 19 new Covid-19 infections, 25 recoveries and no death.

Currently, there are 249 active cases in the state. Of them, 224 are in home isolation and 25 in hospitals, according to the state bulletin released on Monday.

The state’s positive confirmation rate — samples which tested positive — was 0.33 per cent. The recovery rate 98.94 per cent and mortality rate was 1.05 per cent on Monday