Data weapon to boost Covid-19 fight in Bengal A nine-member 'Data Analysis Cell' to identify and crack down on hotspots, perform tests on silent carriers and isolate them

 Attendees of patients in a hospital wait to receive food during the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, in Calcutta on Thursday, April 9 (PTI)

Subhajoy Roy, TT, 10.04.20, Calcutta: A team of doctors, public health specialists and health administrators will identify current and potential Covid-19 hotspots in Bengal, try to predict outbreaks and advise random tests in pockets as a preventive measure, a statement from the government on Thursday said.

The mandate of the nine-member “Data Analysis Cell” includes what public health specialists and scientists have been demanding for long — identify and crack down on hotspots, perform more tests to find out silent carriers of the coronavirus and isolate them to prevent the spread of the disease.

The cell, which will start functioning immediately, will collect and collate data from across the state. It will “use data analytics tools to provide predictions about the disease outbreak and appropriate policy inputs”, the statement from the health department said.

The decision to form the cell to identify hotspots — pockets with a large number of Covid-19 cases or contacts of positive cases — comes a couple of days after the health department asked the Calcutta Municipal Corporation to start a door-to-door survey to locate people down with fever.

The health department’s statement on Thursday mentioned that the cell would collect data from multiple sources on “a real-time basis”.

“The cell will identify the current and potential hotspots. These are places where the number of Covid-19 cases is higher compared with other pockets or is likely to get higher in the coming days,” said a health department official.

“Based on the data, they will be able to project the places where the numbers are likely to increase in the coming days. There are statisticians in the department who will make the projections,” an official said.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Tuesday said the state government was preparing a map of all Covid-19 hotspots. Earlier, on Saturday, chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said the government had started identifying clusters or hotspots.

The nine-member cell will also advise the government in improving disease surveillance based on data collection and analysis. “What kind of public health measures should be taken to prevent an outbreak can be suggested based on what the cell finds from its analysis,” the official said.

Public health experts have said more tests and sealing of hotspots were necessary to prevent the spread of the disease.

“During the 21-day lockdown, we have only been able to prevent the spread of the virus to a wider community. But there are silent carriers even now. Intense community surveillance and more testing and evidence-based sealing of certain neighbourhoods would help prevent the spread in the coming days,” a public health specialist said.

The cell will “present a data-based daily bulletin on the current situation and future projections”. It was not immediately clear whether the bulletin would be available in the public domain. The current daily bulletin does not give any projections or mention potential hotspots.