Q/What is the current situation in Bengal?
A/It is not out of control. But the number [of cases] is increasing rapidly.
So there might be a huge jump in cases. If it increases this way, we are apprehensive of that.
Q/What is the plan of treatment?
A/The symptomatic cases will go to hospital. Asymptomatic and mild cases would be treated at home. If they become symptomatic, they would have to be taken to hospital.
Q/What about the high death rate?
A/The death rate in Bengal is around 3 per cent without comorbidity.
Q/Why are deaths due to comorbidity not included?
A/After our intervention, it has now been done. [As part of] the advisory board, I told the government to include the comorbid number according to ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) norms.
Q/But why did the government not follow that initially?
A/There are deaths of Covid-19 and deaths with Covid-19. More stress was given to [the former].
Q/What are your thoughts on the death audit committee?
A/In our state or country, postmortem is [mostly] not done [in Covid-19 cases]. So, our government decided to set up a death committee. It is their decision, I have nothing to say. But it is very difficult to find the cause of death during this pandemic situation.
Q/West Bengal has low testing.
A/This was because of various reasons. A lack of kits, faulty kits, etc. Sometimes, a negative case in a CBNAAT (cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test) gave a positive result in an RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test.
Q/But there must be tests at the community level to check the spread.
A/Yes, of course. But the government has limitations. I have told the government to raise the number of daily tests to 5,000 immediately. The total tests would have to reach 60,000 within a few days. Only then will we have an idea about the pattern of the disease.
Q/Do you feel West Bengal has reached community-level infection?
A/I cannot say yes or no. Slums in north and south Kolkata are getting infected. This is a clear indication of community-level infection. But no large community-level study has been conducted yet. So far we have been able to do contact tracing; community tracing is yet to be started.
Q/You are part of the ‘global advisory board’ set up by the chief minister. What advice have you given the state government?
A/I have said that we need to stick to the ICMR guidelines. There cannot be several guidelines to follow. I also pointed out that there is no option but to start community tracing as early as possible.
Q/As the virus is spreading quickly, was the lockdown not a success?
A/I would not say it has failed. But yes, it has not got the desired result. People’s help was missing. This is because the level of education in the state is much lower than what is required today. Look at Kerala. It is largely successful because of its high rate of education even in rural areas. [The people] listened to the government.
Q/What is the way ahead?
A/[Having a] lockdown forever is just not possible. We have not yet thought of the second wave. I fear that the worst is still in store for us. I wish we have a united attempt at tackling the situation. People would have to listen to the government. We must know that hospitals have a limit to bear [the load].
Q/Are you confident that the state’s health care system can tackle the situation?
A/It has become an issue between life and livelihood. Which one to save? Nobody knows. People would have to [find a] balance, otherwise no government can do that.
