The coronavirus death toll is rapidly rising and the infection has been soaring at an unprecedented rate and to keep governance aware of the intensity and threat of the present situation, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has ordered a strict lockdown in all the containment zones of the state for the next seven days.
The strict lockdown began from 5pm on Thursday and will last for the coming seven days in order to control and curb the growing coronavirus infection. The West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said that all business enterprises, offices, government and private establishments etc will have to remain closed in all the containment zones of the state. The state’s police has already gone ahead and has begun putting up barricades and bamboo structures to prevent movement in these zones.
The government has decided to not allow any kind of public movement in these areas and discourage anyone to move out unless extremely necessary. These government actions have been quite different from their earlier attitude. West Bengal was among the first few states in the country to have relaxed restrictions for non-essential services and has eased the lockdown rules as early as in Mid-April, this was a time when it had barely been two weeks since the nationwide lockdown was passed. This new decision by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is seen to be coming in the context of high growth of cases in the state and a severe Covid situation, Till Thursday, West Bengal has receded a total of 24,823 cases with 827 deaths. The state’s discharge rate has also gone down sharply from 66.30% on July 5 to 65.62% on July 9.
Earlier, West Bengal’s districts like Malda and Darjeeling hardly reported any cases but now these are emerging as the state’s new hotspots with a caseload of 954 and 716 respectively. What is also worrisome is the fact that many of the state run as well as the private hospitals are running out of beds even when the government has gone ahead and reduced testing.
CM Mamata Banerjee has asked the public not to panic and has clarified that the administration has carved out small localities and streets where clusters of Covid-19 patients have been found.
