Kolkata: With puja revelers visiting almost all the pandals especially without masks, doctors from SSKM advised people not to venture out as according to them in the last four days the covid active rates rose from 1.6 percent to 2.3 percent.
Dr Diptendu Sarkar of SSKM hospital said that if the percentage rises to five percent then there should be at least three months of complete lockdown in West Bengal.
“The people of West Bengal have behaved responsibly last year but this year the people are going mad to visit the pandals but if it continues then the third wave will hit the state in a week,” said Diptendu.
Notably, even before the night curfew was lifted on October 10, people till mid-night visited the pandal and most of the people were seen without wearing a mask. The West Bengal Health Department had also floated a circular requesting people to stay indoors as the number of active covid cases is on rise during the festivity.
Child specialist Agnimitra Giri Sarkar urged people not to take the children for pandal hopping as most of the children are not wearing masks. She also fears that in a week or two children would be affected by Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
“If people take out children then there would be a deadly effect on them. Despite taking both the vaccines people are getting infected by covid 19 and the children are not even vaccinated so if they are kept indoors they will be safe,” said Agnimitra.
Meanwhile, police across the city were seen announcing that people should not gather in large numbers and maintain social distance.
Incidentally, Bharat Biotech on Tuesday had given a go ahead to vaccinate children between 2-18 age groups for Covaxin.
