The West Bengal government is the first to launch the “Sandhan” app on Thursday for health workers moving from one locality to another to find out in which areas people are affected and then the precautionary measures will be taken for those areas. This app will help locate COVID-19 hotspots in the state.
“We have already recognised seven to eight areas in the state as hotspots. Our chief secretary and other officers are working round the clock on this,” said CM Mamata Banerjee while also holding a meeting with medium and small scale industries(MSME) on how to tackle the COVID-19 situation.
The number of COVID-19 active cases in West Bengal stands at 80 and the number of deaths is 5. Furthermore, Mamata said that migrant workers who are staying in West Bengal from 16 states are being taken care of by the state government which is feeding a total of two lakh migrant workers on a daily basis in 711 camps.
Since the lockdown was announced, the MSME sector, travel and tourism and hotel industries have been affected, so has the tea industry. Mamata said that since the Centre has announced the re-opening of the tea industry the state government has taken the decision to do so but with 15% of the total working population is to be engaged at one time.
“Since the top layer of tea leaves have to be plucked otherwise the tea plantations would be affected for the next year, thus it has been decided that on a rotational basis 15% of the workforce will be engaged in the tea plantations at one time. Also, factories can start maintenance and operational work with 15 per cent staff on a rotation basis,” said Mamata who made it clear that tea plantations and factories will take all precautionary measures and use soap, masks and hand sanitisers in their factories.
Mamata is expected to have a meeting on 11th April with Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video conferencing regarding the lockdown situation. “The Chief Ministers will have a meeting with the Prime Minister on the 11th of April, after which we can take any decision. We will cooperate with the Centre if the lockdown is extended and there is nothing to worry as Bengal is prepared to handle any situation,” clarified Mamata who tried to understand ways in which to work in tandem with the MSMEs to keep the economy under control. Mamata also urged representatives of the MSME sector to manufacture masks as that would help their business and also asked the Chambers to take the responsibility of the markets.