KOLKATA: The West Bengal government will conduct a survey to estimate the prevalence of comorbidity among residents of the city, and accordingly ask them to undergo COVID-19 tests, a senior official said on Friday.
According to the plan, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will soon start sending teams to residences spread over 144 wards to compile a list of people with comorbidities, he said.
People having comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiac disease, chronic kidney disease, pulmonary disease, cancer and tuberculosis, will be asked to inform the authorities if they have symptoms of COVID-19.
"After visiting the houses, the teams will prepare a list of people having comorbidities which will be sent to the state health department. Around 2,000 workers will be deployed to conduct the survey, which should be over within a month."
"Primarily, our aim is to send the people having comorbidities and mild symptoms of COVID-19 for tests. There are several people who ignored early testing due to which their health condition has deteriorated. We want every person with comorbidities to undergo tests without any delay," the health department official said.
Till Thursday, COVID-19 death toll in the state was 2,634, including 2,316 who had comorbidities.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during a recent meeting video meeting with PM Narendra Modi, had said that 89 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in the state have been due to comorbidities like diabetes, cancer, hypertension and cardiac disease.