COVID patients in Kolkata given fruit basket with 'Get Well Soon' message from Mamata Banerjee

Amid a surge in the COVID-19 cases, the West Bengal government is reaching out to the infected patients in Kolkata with a fruit basket having a "Get Well Soon" message from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"The West Bengal government is standing by the COVID-19 infected patients in their difficult times. We are sending a fruits basket to the COVID-19 patients with a message of 'Get well soon' from CM to their residences", said local Councillor Md Jasimuddin.

"As many as 3,000 baskets of fruits have been delivered to the COVID-19 patients who are in home isolation. The state government has ordered 10,000 such baskets," he added.

Jasimuddin further informed that a total of six types of fruits are packed in a basket with two units of each fruit. "The fruits are selected particularly for building immunity in COVID-19 patients. We are giving oranges, kiwi, pomegranate, mausambi, apples and guava," he said.

The process of packing fruit baskets starts at 4 am and goes on till 5 pm. "After the fruits are packed, the baskets are loaded in the vans of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and then it gets offloaded to the respective wards, further gets dropped at the patients' doorsteps," said Jasimuddin.

Md Mumtaz, a fruit seller who provides fruits for the baskets, said, "The fruit selection is done by expert workers keeping in mind the COVID-19 patients."

He added that the fruit sellers are not making any profit out of these baskets. "For the time being, we are with the COVID-19 fighters", he stated.

Meanwhile, West Bengal logged 18,213 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total active cases to 51,384, as per the state health bulletin on Friday. The positivity rate in the state is 26.34 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )