West Bengal govt announces 15-day complete lockdown in the state

West Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay on Saturday announced complete lockdown in the state for 15 days between May 16 to May 30. The state already had some restrictions in place. However, the state government isn't calling it a lockdown, they are terming it as 'restrictions'.

The fresh restrictions will come into force from 6 am on Sunday (16 May) and to continue till 6 pm till 30 May.

Industries and factories will be shut down except for food, medical supplies and packaging services. Jute mills will operate with a 30% workforce. Tea gardens will operate with a 50% workforce.

Government and private offices to remain closed. Schools, colleges and all educational institutions will be shut. Gyms, spas, shopping malls and cinema halls to remain shut. Parks and zoos will remain closed.

Weddings to be permitted with no more than 50 people in attendance with physical distancing. Funerals will be permitted with not more than 20 people.  All gatherings, including political and religious gatherings, are prohibited.

Goods carrier to remain suspended except for medical and food services. Inter-state trains, buses and Metro services to remain shut except for emergency service personnel. Private cars, taxis, auto movement to remain closed except for emergency passengers and passengers from airports. All petrol pumps will remain operational. Night curfew will be imposed between 9 pm to 5 am.

All emergency services and media operations are allowed. Essential services like medical stores, optical showrooms and ATMs will be allowed to remain open as usual.

All markets, bazaars and retail stores will be functional only from 7 am to 10 am. Meat and sweet shops will be allowed to function from 10 am to 5 pm.

Government offices handling emergency and essential services will remain operational. Banks and other financial institutions will be open from 10am to 2 pm.

Bandyopadhyay said, "We are hopeful that with this restriction, we will be able to contain the virus to some extent. This will also reduce the burden on health care institutes, nursing homes, hospitals. This will help us to reduce the daily corona cases and also to manage the Oxygen supply chain."

West Bengal on Friday recorded its highest single-day spike of 20,846 fresh coronavirus infections, taking the total tally to 10,94,802. The death toll in the state has also mounted to 12,993 after 136 more people succumbed to COVID-19.

Earlier on April 30, the West Bengal government had imposed a partial lockdown in the state.

Source: news18.com, anandabazar.com, timesnownews.com

Written by Siddhant Sharma