Informist, Saturday, May 15, 2021

KOLKATA – The West Bengal government today tightened curbs to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby bringing the state to nearly a lockdown like situation for 15 days starting Sunday.

"Stricter restrictions and measures are being brought in to control the spread of the virus and reduce the pressure on health infrastructure. These will be reviewed at the end of this month," Alapan Bandyopadhyay, the state's chief secretary, said today.

All public transport, including buses, train, metro railways, ferry services will remain suspended till May 30. Private vehicles, including taxis and auto rickshaws will be allowed only for medical and essential services, including airport services.

Intra-state movement of trucks and goods carriers have also been suspended, except those carrying essential food items, medical supplies and oxygen.

E-commerce and home delivery of all commodities will remain outside the purview of the lockdown.

All government and private offices will remain closed, except those of essential services such as health, fire, power, water department, media, telecom and others. Banks will be allowed to operate between 1000 IST to 1400 IST.

Medicine shops, optical stores, petrol pumps, auto repair shops, liquid petroleum gas offices and distribution centres, cable operators have also been exempted.

Public places such as education institutes, shopping complexes, cinema halls, gym, swimming pools, park, zoos and others will remain fully closed. Social, cultural, political, religious gatherings, among others, will continue to be prohibited.

Industrial activity, including manufacturing plants, have been ordered to remain shut except those related to manufacturing of COVID-19 relief items such as oxygen cylinders, protective supplies and others. Continuous process industries and those manufacturing and packaging essential items have also been allowed to remain open.

Tea gardens have been ordered to operate at 50% of their workforce per shift and attendance in jute mills has been capped at 30%.

Markets and shops selling essential items will remain open only from 0700 IST to 1000 IST. Interestingly, sweetmeat shops have been allowed extended hours of operation from 1000 IST to 1700 IST during the lockdown period. Jewellery and saree shops have been ordered to remain open only between 1200 IST and 1500 IST.

Attendance in marriage ceremonies have been capped at 50 people at a time, and for funerals, attendance is restricted to 20 people.

According to the state's health department, West Bengal has had 1.1 mln COVID-19 cases with a total death toll of 12,993. Daily infections in the state have been hovering around 21,000 for the past few days.  End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Avishek Rakshit

Edited by Shirsha Thakur

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