Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) installed Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machines for diagnostic services at two places across the city on Wednesday. The innovative device can directly detect viral DNAs within 40 minutes. It is the first time in India that a corporation had installed RT- PCR machines. "RT- PCR machines, donated by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India or CREDAI Bengals Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, were installed at Haji Mohammad Mohsin Square in Central Kolkata and Hati Bagan in North Kolkata. We will soon install it at Layelka near Bijoygarh in South Kolkata," said a senior official of Health department of KMC. He reiterated that the KMC authorities have also decided that all the workers under West Bengal Urban Employment Scheme shall be deployed to combat threats of dengue/ malaria by undertaking massive cleaning and disinfection work the supervison of the Solid Waste Management Department, Health Department, Environment and Civil Department. All the controlling officers of the concerned department shall engage workers under the KMCs 100-day work scheme (also West Bengal Urban Employment Scheme or WBUES) to clean ponds/ water bodies, streets, carryout household surveillance for detection and eradication of vulnerable spots of mosquito breeding. It might be mentioned that the number of people afflicted with the disease in South Kolkata is far more than the North and Central parts of the city. Many houses in New Alipore, Jodhpur Park and Golf Club remain under lock and key and the civic workers have no access there. Recently, the civic workers used a ladder to reach the roof of an abandoned house at Baghajatin and found mosquito larvae there. The newly-acquired drones helped KMC spot water patches on the roofs of high-rise buildings, which serve as breeding grounds for mosquito larvae.

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