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Covid-19: Local trains allowed with 50% capacity in West Bengal, night curfew relaxed for major festivals
The local train movement has been allowed with half of the seating capacity. Schools for classes 9 to 12 and universities would be allowed to resume physical classes from November 16.
Amid concerns of increasing daily Covid-19 cases in West Bengal following the festival season, the state government on Friday announced additional relaxations and also extended the existing norms until November 30. The night curfew in the state was relaxed for a period of ten days between October 10 and 20 in view of the Durga Puja celebrations in the state.
The night curfew between 11pm and 5am would continue to remain in force but it would also be relaxed between November 2 and 5 for Kali Puja and Diwali and on November 10, 11 for Chhat Puja, the government said.
Among major relaxations announced, the intra-state local train movement has been allowed with half of the seating capacity. Further, schools for classes 9 to 12 and universities would be allowed to resume physical classes from November 16 following the standard operating procedures (SOP) issued by the education department, the government order said.
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Meanwhile, all government offices related to “non-emergency and non-essential” services would now be allowed to operate with half their total strength. However, government offices related to emergency and essential services have been allowed to remain operational at full strength as was the norm earlier.
“Cinema Halls, theatre halls, sadans, manchas, auditoriums, stadiums, shopping malls, market complexes, restaurants, spa and gym will be allowed to operate with 70% of capacity at a time as per normal operational hours but not beyond 11 pm,” the state government said in its order.
The restaurants and bars have also been allowed to operate at 70% capacity at a given time until 11pm in the night. The attendance at indoor gatherings, including marriages and other activities such as shooting for films and TV programmes and audio recording activities, has been capped at 70% the venue’s capacity. Also such events must happen in adherence with Covid-19 protocols, the government further stressed.
Close to 1,000 new Covid-19 infections (990 to be exact) were reported on Thursday in the state and 1,590, 032 total confirmed cases have been logged, a state health bulletin showed. The death toll climbed 19,105 with nine more fatalities on the day and the active caseload stood at 8,109. Also, 74,557,337 doses of the vaccine have been administered to eligible beneficiaries as of October 28, according to the data.
