FILE
The West Bengal government has decided to impose a complete lockdown in the state for two days every week amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. This week, the lockdown will be in place on Thursday and Saturday. The decision has been taken in view of community transmission in a few areas in West Bengal, state home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said.
On Sunday, the COVID-19 death toll in West Bengal reached 1,112 after 36 people succumbed to the disease, the highest so far in a single day. Kolkata recorded the maximum 15 deaths, followed by neighboring North 24 Parganas nine, Hooghly four, Howrah and South 24 Parganas three each, and Purba Medinipur and Paschim Medinipur one each.
At least 2278 people, the highest in a single day, tested positive for the disease, taking the infection tally to 42,487. The number of active cases is 16,492.
"There are a few places in the state where community transmission of COVID-19 has been detected. After talking to experts, doctors, enforcement authorities, and the police, we have decided to impose complete lockdown for two days every week in the entire state to break the chain (of transmission)," Bandyopadhyay told reporters at the secretariat. All offices, transport services will be shut down on those two days, he said.
Meanwhile, 63 more areas were added to the list of 'broad-based' containment zones in the state, increasing the count to 739. The number of such zones in Kolkata has increased to 32 from 24, with the metropolis continuing to record the maximum number of COVID-19 cases in the state every day. The government has recently clubbed containment zones and the buffer zones around them to constitute a 'broad-based' containment zone.
The West Bengal government is also planning to set up COVID-19 units at every private and state-run hospital, amid the relentless surge in the number of coronavirus cases. A directive to improve infrastructure and accommodate separate units for COVID-19 patients has already been issued to all the state-run hospitals. The government is also planning to procure at least 19 more Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test kits as it wants to ensure that at least 25,000 tests are carried out every day.
RELATED VIDEO
