Extending the biweekly lockdown till 31 August, state government today announced the seven days when there would be a complete shutdown across the state to “break the chain of Covid transmission in the state”.

As already announced, there would be a complete lockdown tomorrow. The concept of biweekly lockdown was introduced by the state government last week.

“The existing lockdown that was in force till 31 July will now be extended till 31 August with a complete lockdown on two days every week. After seeking an opinion from experts we have decided to extend the biweekly lockdown till next month so that the chain of COVID transmission can be broken,” said chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a Press Conference in Nabanna.

In August, there will be strict lockdown across the state on 5th (Wednesday), 8th (Saturday), 16th (Sunday), 17th (Monday), 23rd (Sunday), 24th (Monday) and 31st (Monday), Miss Banerjee said adding that the lockdown in the broad-based containment zones has also been extended till 31 August.

Miss Banerjee said that the bi-weekly lockdown will mainly be enforced on Saturdays and Sundays.

However, since festivals like Eid, Ganesh Chaturthi, Muharram and Independence Day are on Saturdays, the lockdown will be enforced on other days. Although Miss Banerjee announced lockdown for nine days, late this evening, state home department tweeted informing withdrawal of lockdown announcement for two days ~ 2nd (Sunday) and 9th (Sunday) ~ after “receiving request and appeal from different quarters not to observe state-wide lockdown on certain dates coinciding with festivals and important community occasions”.

Miss Banerjee urged people to wear masks, follow physical distancing norms and avoid gatherings on all days. Operation of flights and trains will be suspended during the lockdown.

All the government and private offices, commercial establishments, public and private transport will remain shut. Only the essential services will be functional. Petrol pumps are allowed to open.

The functioning of courts, work in agricultural fields and tea gardens, intrastate and inter-state goods movements and home delivery of cooked food will be permitted. Miss Banerjee further said that if the situation permits then educational institutions including schools and colleges will reopen on 5 September that is observed as Teachers’ Day. Classes will be held on alternate days, she added.

The state government has decided that relatives of deceased COVIDsuspects would no longer have to wait for the test results. The process that is followed in case of the dead bodies of COVID patients would now be followed for the COVIDsuspects.

“The decision has been taken on humanitarian grounds. Henceforth, if a person is brought dead to the hospital then his/her relatives would not have to wait for the COVID test report,” said Miss Banerjee. In an attempt to ensure better COVID management in the most affected districts, the state government today appointed eight senior bureaucrats to form special teams for closely coordinating work at different sectors. Separate teams have been set up for ‘COVID infrastructure augmentation’, ‘testing laboratories’, ‘safe homes’, ‘dead body disposal’, ‘COVID management’, ‘telemedicine services’, ‘database management’ and ‘COVID clubs’.

The state government has already appointed senior officials as nodal officers to supervise COVID management in the four most-affected districts; namely Alapan Bandopadhyay was appointed for Kolkata, Rajesh Pandey for Howrah, Manoj Pant for North 24 Parganas and Naveen Prakash for South 24 Parganas. People can get assistance on telemedicine facilities, ambulance and admission by dialling the 24/7 helpline number~1800313444222, said Miss Banerjee.

The state government has increased testing facilities and would start antigen test soon wherein results would be declared fast, she said adding that the COVID case count is increasing as a higher number of samples are being tested. COVID is at its peak now and 17,000 samples are tested every day, she added.

“Patients from other states come to Bengal for treatment as the health infrastructure that is available in our state is not found anywhere else,” she said.