West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha on Saturday assured that the state had no plans to reinstate a complete COVID-19 lockdown. This comes even as the Centre wrote to the West Bengal government expressing concern over the rising number of cases.
Health Ministry Joint secretary, Lav Agarwal had written to the state health secretary stating that areas such as Kolkata, Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas and other areas needed "immediate attention". The Centre also noted that the state had a comparatively lower testing rate, and has urged the government to implement actions to suppress the transmission of the virus.
Speaking on Saturday, Sinha said that while numbers were likely to increase, the state was ready to deal with the same. "Do not panic. The situation is not out of control. The situation is deteriorating everywhere, not only in Bengal. Social distancing and personal hygiene a must," he said.
Sinha noted that a lack of information or the spreading of mis-information may be scaring people. The government's main work now, he added, was to remove these misconceptions.
"Cases will rise in urban areas; that is why we are treating these four, five districts as one unit. Howrah, Hooghly, Kolkata, and South and North 24 Parganas. We will not segregate as everyone deserves equal treatment opportunity," he said.
Sinha clarified that the state had no intentions of declaring a lockdown.
"The state has no plans to introduce lock down. The state will have containment zones with complete restriction. This is a dynamic process. Unless there is a serious deterioration of the situation, there is no immediate crisis," he said.
Speaking of testing, he said that the state was targeting 275 per million people. "More the number of tests, more will be the number of cases. So look at figures in detail. Look at the micro picture, not macro," he added.
