GUWAHATI, April 16 - At a time when the whole world is fighting against COVID-19, people from different corners of the city have complained about a sudden surge in the number of mosquitos in their respective areas, which has created a new health concern for them.
Entomologists have attributed this to the disruption of the routine desiltation of drains on account of the nationwide lockdown.
�At this time of the year, generally, regular fogging and desiltation of drains is needed to control mosquitos. But, the current health emergency situation has obviously disrupted such activities,� an entomologist said.
Meanwhile, a senior official of the GMC stated that its drain desiltation drive system has been largely affected by the shortage of labourers amid the lockdown, as labourers from outside the city have not been able to attend duty.
�Though we have scarcity of labour, yet we resumed the desiltation drive and set a target to cover 60 per cent of the areas of Guwahati,� the senior GMC official said.
Officials of the Kamrup (Metro) district health department, at a stakeholders� meeting held late last week, informed that the fight against COVID-19 and mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, dengue and Japanese Encephalitis will be carried on simultaneously.
