BSF Driver Escorting Central Team in Kolkata Tests Positive for Covid-19, 50 Jawans Quarantined

Kolkata: A Border Security Force (BSF) driver of an escort vehicle of the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (ICMT) in West Bengal has tested positive for COVID-19.

The report has sent ripples in the BSF headquarters in Kolkata where the central team was lodged. About 50 BSF personnel whom the driver came in contact with in the last two weeks have been quarantined.

Sources said as a precautionary measure, the IMCT members have been advised self-isolation, though the driver had not come in direct contact of the team.

BSF sources said the infected jawan was escorting the IMCT as they moved around Kolkata to take stock of the situation and the Mamata Banerjee-led government’s preparedness to contain the coronavirus pandemic in the state. The team is headed by Special Secretary Apurva Chandra.

A senior BSF officer said the driver had not come in direct contact of IMCT members as he was part of the escort vehicle. “He and four other jawans who were sitting with him in that car were asked to wait at the gates of the premises where the IMCT members had visited,” he said.

“We have traced his contacts and following the guidelines we have sent nearly 50 BSF jawans to quarantine as a precautionary measures. A few days ago, he had complained of fever and we got him admitted at MR Bangur Hospital. On April 30, his swab samples tested positive for coronavirus,” the official said.

Of the 50 jawans, 15 have been quarantined at the BSF Hospital in Salt Lake, while the rest 30 were sent for isolation at the 179 Battalion of the BSF at Barasat in North 24 Parganas.

Meanwhile, the IMCT team left for Delhi on Monday after conducting inspections for two weeks at various hospitals and quarantine centres.

Before leaving, the team wrote to Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha about the discrepancies in COVID-19 data released by the state government.

The central team said the state government had taken an antagonistic view of the IMCT and did not extent support to the members in fulfilling their duties.

“This contrasts with the experience of IMCTs deputed in other states at the same time where daily schedules of visits by the IMCTs were prepared and meetings were held by the IMCTs from the highest levels of the state government to the field level functionaries,” the letter read.