The diarrhoea situation worsened in southern parts of Kolkata and some adjacent suburbs with more than 2,000 people falling victim to the water-borne disease, Kolkata Municipal Corporation sources said.
While Mayor Sovan Chatterjee denied any report of water contamination contradicting his senior officials’ assertion that ongoing underground sewer renovation works could have triggered the crisis, situation worsened and reports of infections came pouring from newer areas across a large part of southern Kolkata spread over about 10-15 wards threatening more 10 lakh people, sources said.
Hospitals were crammed with patients and “many victims had to be refused admission because of shortage of beds,” staff at Beleghata ID Hospital and Bagha Jatin State General Hospital said.
The disease had spread to Kasba, Dhakuria, Salimpur, Jadavpur, parts of posh Tolygunge in the past one day after initially hitting areas at Bagha Jatin, Santoshpur sources said. “We are prepared with ample number of ORS and medications and hope the situation will be controlled in a day’s time” the Mayor said.