KOLKATA: With Covid deaths dropping sharply in Kolkata in 2021, the KMC has decided to normalize operations in the city’s
crematoriums that had been requisitioned for cremation of Covid victims.
Sources in the KMC health department said a decision has been taken to take the
Covid tag off the old complex of Nimtolla burning ghat and Birjunala burning ghat in Garden Reach. An official maintained that the
civic body will wait for some more days before deciding to take the Covid tag off Dhapa crematorium. Sources in the KMC electrical department said the department will send a proposal to the civic body’s health department to reuse the Dhapa crematorium for cremation of unclaimed bodies.
A KMC health department official said since a couple of new furnaces were constructed at Dhapa during the height of the pandemic, one of them could now be used for cremation of dead strays. KMC had started construction of such a facility at Dhapa dumping ground one-and-a-half years ago, but work stalled following the Covid outbreak.
Even four months ago, the scene was different at Dhapa. “Till August, we were under pressure of cremating over 30 bodies a day. Then there was a backlog since we had no infrastructure to cremate so many Covid victims in a single day. The number dipped significantly in November. We will now watch for some weeks before taking the Covid tag off the crematorium,” an official said.
According to state health department data, Covid fatality in Kolkata was 3,092 on Friday. In February, till now, 18 people have died due to Covid in Kolkata while the number was 124 in January. On December 31, 2020, Kolkata had reported 2,950 Covid deaths. The first Covid death in Kolkata was reported on March 25, 2020.
Data available from the KMC health department revealed only 1% of those taking RT-PCR tests across Kolkata daily have been testing positive for the past month. “Around 3,000 citizens are visiting the city’s test centres daily, of which only 30 are testing positive. But we need to keep our guard up,” said an official.