The West Bengal government will have a complete lockdown two days every week in July, Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said on Monday. The State recorded 2,282 cases on the day taking the total to 44,769.
He said a “complete halt in the manner of lockdown” will be in addition to the containment zone strategy. He said the lockdown this week will be on Thursday and Saturday — the days will be announced in advance. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
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Mr. Bandyopadhyay also admitted that experts are of the opinion that “some amount of community transmission” has occurred. The State government announced a dedicated helpline to reach out to in cases of urgency related to the spread of the pandemic.
The government has already extended restrictions on incoming flights from six cities of the country. There are over 700 containment zones where strict restrictions on the movement of people are being enforced. The Kolkata police also started a campaign called #MaskUpKolkata to promote usage of masks. The State has recorded over 40,000 cases of COVID-19 infections and over 1,100 deaths. On an average over 2,000 cases are being recorded everyday.
The active cases have increased to 17,204 and 35 more deaths in the past 24 hours took the toll to 1,147. Kolkata reported 16 deaths, North 24 Parganas eight, Howrah seven and South 24 Parganas three. The State tested over 13,000 samples in the past one day and the discharge rate remained at 59 %.
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