District authorities in South 24-Parganas launched a renewed mask awareness drive on Friday apprehending complacency among those partially vaccinated against Covid-19 and a possible third wave of the pandemic amid the festival season.

The move comes amid rising numbers of positive cases in the district, with doctors and medical associations urging citizens to obey Covid safety protocols better.

“The drive involves women from self-help and grassroots organisations in South 24-Parganas,” said a district official. “The objective of the initiative is to reach the grassroots and encourage people to wear masks stringently. Doorstep drives are at the core of this initiative,” the official added.

According to medical associations in the district, the spectre of a third wave “appears imminent”, with the district continuing to record nearly 50 new positive cases every day over the past few weeks.

Sources added that rising numbers made district officials realise that engaging grassroots and self-help groups would be crucial to keep Covid infections under control.

“We observed rising infections since the process of unlocking began, because many people are attending crowded places without wearing masks. This is deadly,” said a doctor from Diamond Harbour Super Speciality Hospital. “Policing and awareness campaigns seem to have fallen on deaf ears.”

Acknowledging this, district magistrate P. Ulagnathan said: “Our district has a very poor mask culture in comparison to other districts, but this needs to change. People should understand that by wearing a mask, they can check the spread of Covid.”

“We are engaging women’s groups to make people more aware about the importance of masks and about the threat of a third wave,” he added.

Though South 24-Parganas has recorded a good number of Covid patients who have being discharged from hospitals, the district continues to record new cases.

On July 10, the district had a total 95,114 positive cases, which increased to 96,529 on August 10 and increased further on September 10 to 98,166. On July 10, the total number of deaths was 1,260, which rose to 1,278 on August 10, and went up further to 1,292 on September 10. During the past one week, the district has recorded an average 50 new positive cases daily, which is quite alarming, health officials have stated.

Last year, the Bengal government had decided to engage around one crore women members of self-help groups to raise awareness in rural areas of the state. These women were also imparted training by the local panchayat and health department.

South 24-Parganas has over 1,000 such groups formed under the “Anandadhara” programme by the district administration. They have begun visiting public places and homes across the district. The drive constituting the first phase began from Kulpi, Mograhat, Kakdwip, and Baruipur on Friday.

On Saturday morning, members of the groups were seen interacting with people in a bid to make them realise the need for masks, using sanitisers, maintaining distance, the need to wash hands and how to contact health workers in case of illness.

Still, in many districts the initiative could not be implemented since many groups have reportedly lost their income and wage support.

A senior official of the panchayat department in the district said: “Since members of self-help groups are women, they can play a very effective role in creating awareness, as they know villagers personally. The most important aspect of their support is to make people understand about the need for wearing masks.”

Sources said women from these groups would not be offered any remuneration for the awareness drive.