KOLKATA : The downward slide of dengue cases in the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area — covering Salt Lake and Rajarhat Gopalpur — continued for the fourth straight week. Single-week dengue cases, too, declined further, with just 229 fresh cases reported last week.
The fall in number of cases has been noticed in the last four weeks. BMC health department officials said they were expecting single-week dengue cases to dip below 200 next week.
“Dengue cases have come down. Even many of the 229 cases that were reported on Thursday were over 10 to 12 days old. Because it often takes time to compile the data and report to Swasthya Bhavan from private labs,” said a BMC health department official. Officials said that as per the latest updated figures, an average of about five to six dengue cases were now getting reported from each of the 41 wards.
Single-week dengue cases were highest in the second week of October when 464 cases were reported — from October 14 to October 20. The downward trend began from the last week of October. The next four weeks reported 406, 325, 311 and 273 fresh cases.
A ward-wise break up of cases in BMC area this year till date shows that Ward 26 — comprising parts of Kestopur area — was the most-affected ward with over 260 dengue cases. Ward 1, adjacent to the airport, on the other hand, reported just three to four cases. Wards like 9, 17, 25 and 26 — in Rajarhat Gopalpur area and covering pockets of Baguiati and Kestopur — and wards 29, 31, 33 and 34 in Salt Lake had been the most dengue-prone areas this year.
Civic officials said they have been conducting intensive larvacide spraying and cleanup work to stop mosquito breeding in the last few weeks. Though cases are now declining, total dengue cases in BMC area this year have already crossed the 4,000 mark, the highest in recent times with six dengue deaths so far.