KOLKATA: The health department has formed a Covid Managament and Containment Committee with former director of medical education Pradip Kumar Mitra as the state coordinator. With a mandate to oversee the functioning of the testing laboratories, the committee has started functioning under the leadership of Mitra who assumed charge on April 30. Now retired, Mitra — who is considered an able administrator and has served the health department for more than 35 years — will be functioning from the Swasthya Bhavan.
According to health department sources, it was chief secretary Rajiva Sinha who approached Mitra with an offer to head a committee that will look into various aspects of dealing with the pandemic and offer advice, including testing of samples that is being stepped up. Mitra, who had been appointed director of medical education in 2018 during an agitation by the students of Calcutta Medical College, agreed to take up the responsibility. “But I have informed the health authorities that it will not be possible for me to visit hospitals. They have allowed me to work from Swasthya Bhavan,” Mitra told TOI on Sunday.
He added that apart from looking into various aspects of Covid-19 and offering advice, the committee will make an attempt to increase the number of testing laboratories. “We now have 16 functioning laboratories across the private and government sectors. Within the next one week, we hope to have at least three more at Burdwan, NRS Medical College and Calcutta Medical College. These labs are ready and are waiting for a clearance from the ICMR,” said Mitra. He added that a lab will come up at Bankura as well.
A two-week long hunger strike by students of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital demanding accommodation at a new hostel building had led to the appointment of Mitra as the medical education director in 2018. Prior to that, he had been the director of the Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER).
Mitra, who was removed from the post of the IPGMER director following a controversy over a dog’s dialysis there in 2015, was subsequently posted as the OSD, multi/super specialty hospital. His appointment is in line with the state government’s recent announcement of appointing retired health officials to bolster health services during the pandemic.
Bengal on Sunday tested 1,939 people taking the total testing figures to 22,915. Till April 30, the government has tested 16,525 samples. In April end Bengal’s tests per million increased to 183. “The testing scale-up is proportional to the number of tests. On February 1, we had one testing centre, on March 2, we had two. On March 27, this became three and now we have 16 testing centres. This figure will keep increasing as we get more approvals for testing centres. We are ensuring that they work to their full capacity,” Sinha had told reporters. In April-end, the increase in tests, he said, was proportional to the positive sampling rate which slipped to below 5, and stood at 4.6% on Thursday.
According to health department sources, it was chief secretary Rajiva Sinha who approached Mitra with an offer to head a committee that will look into various aspects of dealing with the pandemic and offer advice, including testing of samples that is being stepped up. Mitra, who had been appointed director of medical education in 2018 during an agitation by the students of Calcutta Medical College, agreed to take up the responsibility. “But I have informed the health authorities that it will not be possible for me to visit hospitals. They have allowed me to work from Swasthya Bhavan,” Mitra told TOI on Sunday.
He added that apart from looking into various aspects of Covid-19 and offering advice, the committee will make an attempt to increase the number of testing laboratories. “We now have 16 functioning laboratories across the private and government sectors. Within the next one week, we hope to have at least three more at Burdwan, NRS Medical College and Calcutta Medical College. These labs are ready and are waiting for a clearance from the ICMR,” said Mitra. He added that a lab will come up at Bankura as well.
A two-week long hunger strike by students of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital demanding accommodation at a new hostel building had led to the appointment of Mitra as the medical education director in 2018. Prior to that, he had been the director of the Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER).
Mitra, who was removed from the post of the IPGMER director following a controversy over a dog’s dialysis there in 2015, was subsequently posted as the OSD, multi/super specialty hospital. His appointment is in line with the state government’s recent announcement of appointing retired health officials to bolster health services during the pandemic.
Bengal on Sunday tested 1,939 people taking the total testing figures to 22,915. Till April 30, the government has tested 16,525 samples. In April end Bengal’s tests per million increased to 183. “The testing scale-up is proportional to the number of tests. On February 1, we had one testing centre, on March 2, we had two. On March 27, this became three and now we have 16 testing centres. This figure will keep increasing as we get more approvals for testing centres. We are ensuring that they work to their full capacity,” Sinha had told reporters. In April-end, the increase in tests, he said, was proportional to the positive sampling rate which slipped to below 5, and stood at 4.6% on Thursday.
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