KOLKATA: Ignoring her health issues and suggestions by her physician, the community health officer of Magurmari health centre in north Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, Abishmita Ghosh, who is seven months pregnant, has decided not to take rest at home and has been working hard to conduct a medical check-up of the migrant labourers and their family members.
Riding the pillion of a motorcycle Abishmita is working almost round-the-clock as around 800 migrant labourers returned home from different states, mainly from Kerala.
The pocket with a population of around 7,500 is now in the district administration’s top priority list because of its high percentage of outbound labourers who returned to their villages recently.
“The top priority is now the coronavirus issue in my jurisdiction as a huge volume of labourers returned from other states, especially from Kerala. Though, my doctors advised me to stay at home at this stage, securing hundreds of lives from the infection is my prime concern,’’ said Abishmita.
“The area is dominated by daily wage earners who are not well aware of coronavirus and its impact if once one of their neighbours gets infected. We are organising intensive campaigns every day to make people aware of the deadly virus,’’ she said.
“She is paying a surprise visit to the villages of migrants labourers to see whether the isolation guideline is being followed. In many cases, she found the migrants labourers are not following the guideline and sent them to quarantine centres set up by the state government,’’ said Rajesh Kumar Singh, vice-chairman of Dhupguri municipality.
Meanwhile, at least 10 more people tested positive for the virus in different parts of West Bengal.