Hummingbird News Desk
KOLKATA, 5 MAY: In a bid to curb the rising Covid-19 cases, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday imposed fresh restrictions in the state.
She announced to suspend movement of all local trains from tomorrow till further notice and made Covid negative report mandatory for the passengers coming either by flight or by trains from other states from 7 May midnight.
Miss Banerjee told a virtual press briefing that all markets, retailers and standalone shops will now function only from 7 am to 10 am in the morning and from 5 pm to 7 pm in the evening.
Further, she announced that state transport, including the Kolkata Metro, will function at only 50 per cent capacity.
“Looking at the COVID-19 situation, we have to take some steps,” Miss Banerjee announced, adding that the wearing of masks has been made mandatory in the state.
State government offices will now function with only 50 per cent attendance.
For private offices, work from home has been mandated for 50 per cent of the staff.
Shopping complexes, gyms, cinema halls, beauty parlours etc have also been ordered shut. Banks have been allowed to operate from 10 am to 2 pm while jewellery shops can remain open from 12 pm to 3 pm.
Hours after taking the responsibility of the state for the third time in a row, chief minister said,
“No flights will be allowed to enter three airports of the state – Dum Dum, Bagdogra and Andal unless all the passengers have their RT-PCR (Covid test) report done 72 hours before boarding the flight. Not only that, all passengers coming by trains or any other means from other states will have to produce their RT-PCR report.”
“Any passenger coming by flight without the report will have to stay in quarantine for 14 days and the airport authorities will have to make an arrangement for that,” the chief minister added.
Apart from this the state government has also put a ban on any kind of gathering related to socio-cultural and academic entertainment programs.
“Only 50 people will be allowed for religious and cultural gatherings like marriage or something like that but in that case prior permission needs to be taken from the local authorities. The state has not only reduced the presence of their employees in the office by 50 per cent but also asked the private sector to reduce the number of employees in the office,” she said.
Prioritising the vaccination of transport workers, journalists, and hawkers because they are exposed to the people the most, the chief minister said, “We want to prioritise the people who are waiting for the second dose. We have given 1.5 core vaccines so far and asked for another 3 crore but there has been no response from the central government”.
The chief minister today also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought free-of-cost Covid-19 vaccines for all. In the letter, she also urged the PM to ensure adequate availability of essential drugs such as Remdesivir amid rising demand.
“On Covid management, I request for adequate vaccines as well as oxygen supply, hospital beds, essential drugs and free vaccination for all. We require at least 10,000 doses of Remdesivir and 1,000 vials of Tocilizumab every day,” the CM wrote.
Tags: #MamataBanarjee #COVID19 #COVIDSecondWave #covidcases #localtrainservices #MetroRail #RTPCRTest #travel
