West Bengal: CM Mamata Decides To Rope In State’s 2.7 Lakh ‘Quack Doctors’ To Fight Covid-19

The West Bengal government will bring in the State's 2,75,000 quack doctors to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in rural areas of the State, according to a report in Hindustan Times.

The decision was taken in a meeting held by chief minister Mamata Banerjee with the chief secretary, home secretary, health secretary and district officials on Wednesday (5 May).

Covid-19 cases in the rural parts of the State have risen five to eight times more than the cases occurring in the first wave of the pandemic in October.

A senior official of the state health department told the reporters, "Even when the state was witnessing the peak of the first wave in October 2020, the cases in rural Bengal were under control. But now, cases have shot up almost five to eight times in the districts with more than 50 per cent rural population,"

Last year, 22 October 2020, West Bengal reported 4,157 cases- the highest daily spike in the first wave. Districts like Birbhum, Murshidabad, Hooghly and Nadia reported 82, 110, 225 and 194 patients, respectively.

West Bengal reported a record high of 18,102 cases and 103 deaths on Wednesday (5 May); the same districts reported 722, 500, 986 and 869 cases, respectively, a rise of five to eight times.

Quacks do not have medical degrees but practice medicine, mainly in rural areas, from practical experience.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in an election promise said that she would get 'Quacks' to be certified as a 'Rural Health Practitioner' or a 'Rural Health Provider' in 2016 elections to save them the indignity of being called a 'quack.'