Housing complex sets up Covid safe home in Kolkata

KOLKATA: The state government has allowed New Town’s Greenwood Sonata to have a Covid-19 safe home on its premises. The chief medical officer of health (CMOH), North 24 Parganas, issued the permission on Wednesday, along with a set of guidelines. Eleven more housing societies are applying for similar approvals, but Greenwood Sonata is the state’s first gated community with the official nod to house residents with mild coronavirus symptoms.

“We had been eagerly waiting for permission for the first Covid-care facility in an apartment complex,” said Samaresh Das, chairman, New Town Forum and News (NTFN), the NGO facilitating the project on behalf of New Town residents.
“Greenwood Sonata is the state’s first residential complex with its own Covid-care centre,” said Debashis Sen, chairman, New Town Development Authority (NKDA), adding, “New Town residents are setting a splendid example at a time when several Covid patients are being hounded out of their neighbourhoods.”
“On July 19, an inspection team from the CMOH’s office in Barasat, the state WHO and NKDA visited us and expressed satisfaction with the facilities on offer. We had been waiting for the formal letter ever since, because more such Covid isolation centres are lined up. The isolation centres will give residents a space to stay away from home yet close by without risking infecting family members,” said Sudipta Mukherjee, president of Greenwood Sonata Apartment Owners’ Association and the director of Titagarh Wagons.
Office-bearers of other societies, too, expressed their delight. Gobinda Biswas, secretary, Sunrise Point Apartment Owners’ Association, said: “Now we can get ours. We are applying for an eight-bed facility. All the 350 families in our complex are on board.”
Parimal Ghosh, director, PS Ixora, said, “The authorities came for an inspection and wanted us to make some changes. We were advised to cover the top of the AC vent to reduce risk of infection of residents staying above the facility.”
The 400-odd families of Greenwood Sonata in Action Area IID have spent Rs 3 lakh for the five-bed set-up in the community hall. The Wi-Fi-enabled AC set-up is equipped with television, telephone, refrigerator, specialized wash basin and washing machine. Ceiling fans have been installed to address non AC ventilation requirements. Medical equipment, like sphygmomanometer, pulse oxymeters, oxygen cylinders, PPE and N95 masks are available. The safe home will also have 24-hour caregivers who will stay in separate living quarters.
“The residents voluntarily paid Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 each to raise the funds. Once the safe home starts functioning, there will be contributory charges for the running cost,” said Mukherjee.
There will be two in-house doctors who are complex residents. One of them, Debanjan Kundu of RG Kar Medical College, is overwhelmed by the support he received from his neighbours when he got infected last month and has resolved to be on call 24x7.
NTFN had mooted the idea of such safe houses at the start of the lockdown. “We made a presentation before NKDA more than three months ago,” said Das. He, Mukherjee and others have since been going around New Town to raise awareness for a community fight against coronavirus. “We have covered 17 housing complexes so far. Most of them are applying for permission to set up safe homes. There are 50-odd complexes in New Town and we are going to visit the rest during the next few days,” said Das.