The West Bengal government on Wednesday announced that the restriction on domestic flight arrivals from six cities to Kolkata will be eased from September 1.
The restrictions on flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad were imposed from the first week of July. The State said the curbs will continue till the end of August.
“We have received several requests to resume flight operations from six COVID-19 hotspot cities. So from September 1, flight services from these six States can resume thrice a week,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at the Secretariat.
She said schools and colleges will continue to remain closed till September 20.
Ms. Banerjee said her government is willing to allow one-fourth of suburban trains services and full Metro services to resume with adequate safety protocols, including physical distancing, from September 1.
She said the State government will review the situation on September 17. Ms. Banerjee said the railways’ authorities should speak with the State government officials to work out the modalities regarding the resumption of train services.
The State government also extended the bi-weekly lockdown till the middle of September — 7, 11 and 12.
55 more deaths
The State recorded 2,974 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total case tally to 1,47,775. The State also recorded 55 deaths, pushing its total toll to 2,964. Of the latest victims, 19 were from Kolkata and 10 from North 24 Parganas district. The State’s recovery rate has improved to 79.75%. The number of new cases recorded in Kolkata was 554. A spike of 512 cases was reported in North 24 Parganas district.
