How was the rescue operations hampered?
Answers
Explanation:
Cyclone Amphan: Rescue operations hampered because of Covid fears
Rescuers had a tough time convincing many people to move to shelters in Odisha and West Bengal before Cyclone Amphan tore into eastern India and Bangladesh on Wednesday because of fears of contracting Covid-19.
Hindustan Times, Kolkata/Bhubaneswar | By HT Correspondents
UPDATED ON MAY 21, 2020 04:18 AM IST
People make way through gusty winds as super cyclone Amphan makes landfall, near Dhamara Port in Bhadrak district, Wednesday, May 20, 2020.(PTI photo)
Rescuers had a tough time convincing many people to move to shelters in Odisha and West Bengal before Cyclone Amphan tore into eastern India and Bangladesh on Wednesday because of fears of contracting Covid-19.
Authorities in West Bengal said they were even forced to resort to force in some cases to evacuate people as some of them insisted they would rather die in their own houses than risk contracting the infection in the shelters. “There were some people who refused to move to cyclone shelters. We first tried to convince them. When it did not work, we used force,” said an official in South 24 Parganas district.
Officials said there were hardly any Covid-19 patients in remote coastal villages in the state from where around 300,000 people have been were evacuated. They added enforcing the directives to avoid Covid-19 spread in the shelters will be challenging.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday warned officials would try to enforce social distancing in the shelters, but it may not be possible as the priority will be to save lives from the cyclone.
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Some cyclone shelters are being used exclusively as quarantine centres for migrant workers returning from other states. The administration has also earmarked hundreds of school and colleges to accommodate the evacuees and stocked them with masks and sanitizers.
South 24 Parganas district magistrate P Ulaganathan said nodal officers have been deputed for each shelter and frontline workers have been equipped with personal protection equipment in view of the pandemic.
His East Midnapore counterpart, Partha Ghosh, said to ensure that social distancing is maintained, they spread the evacuees across over nearly 600 schools and colleges.
The evacuation process was particularly challenging in Odisha, which has reported a surge in Covid-19 infections with 70-80 fresh cases daily.
The government initially estimated that 1.1 million people across 12 districts needed to be relocated, but it revised its figures after India Meteorological Department said only Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur may be affected.