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The number of dengue cases in Kolkata has doubled in about a fortnight, figures shared by some officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation over the last month have shown.
There has been a corresponding rise in hospital admissions too, senior officials and doctors of private healthcare units in Kolkata said.
A KMC official said on Saturday that till the last count, about 1,400 dengue infections have been reported since January. KMC updates the number of dengue infections in the city every Thursday.
The Telegraph had reported earlier that about 700 dengue cases were reported till the second week of August.
Neither the KMC nor the state health department released any official data on the number of dengue infections, but some officials shared with The Telegraph the number of dengue infections on condition of anonymity. There is no official data on the number of people who have died of dengue, but several deaths from dengue have come to light.
KMC officials admitted on Saturday and Sunday that the numbers have seen a sharp rise in the last two weeks.
“We are going door-to-door telling people that they should not allow water to accumulate anywhere in their house. We are also detecting and destroying sites for mosquito breeding. We are also cleaning abandoned vacant plots as they turn into sites for mosquito breeding,” said a KMC official.