Kolkata: In the wake of a slight uptick in dengue cases, a meeting on stock-taking and dengue-control measures was held at Nabanna on Monday. It was attended by chief secretary and representatives from 16 departments, including health, civic bodies and police.Sources said the focus was on destruction of breeding grounds in clusters where more dengue cases have been found, an increase in testing and fast-tracking of the release of test reports. Around Rs 1.2 crore has been approved for dengue-related work.Sources said around 7,320 cases have been reported from across the state this year, of which around 2,600 cases were reported in the past two weeks. In Kolkata, 624 cases have been reported against last year’s 662.“We want to tighten our vector-control measures, step up testing and ramp hospital preparedness if the need arises. Dengue cases can escalate till Nov. At present, only around 260 patients are being treated across different hospitals across the state,” said a health department source.“Dengue cases occur till Nov. So, it’s too early to predict. Let’s hope that there won’t be much water stagnation over the next two months,” said microbiologist Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhuri.
