UNN/Bijan Banerjee: The West Bengal government will use the state’s 275,000 quacks as the first line of defence against the second wave of Covid-19, which has registered a 5- 8 times jump in rural Bengal over last year’s peak. The state health department will soon issue dos and don’ts for their handling of Covid-19 patients.We can use this workforce.
We can name them ‘Swasthya Suraksha Bondhu’ instead of calling them quacks,” chief minister Mamata Banerjee said referring to the unqualified rural healthcare workers who are often consulted by villagers for minor ailments in absence of qualified doctors.