10% manpower allowed in IT sector, curbs relaxed for retail shops

KOLKATA: Taking a stock of the Covid situation on Monday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee allowed functioning of the IT and ITeS sectors with 10 per cent of the total strength when the state government has extended the restrictions with stricter containment approach till June 15 to curb the Covid cases in Bengal.

At the same time, relaxations have also been given to opening of retail shops from 12 noon and 3 pm. The book stores will also be allowed to open for the same time period in a day.

The Publishers and Booksellers Guild have expressed gratitude towards Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for allowing the bookstores to keep open following Covid norms.

They wrote to the Chief Minister on May 28 requesting the same. The bookstores will open from June 1.

This comes when the number of Covid cases has come down to 10,137 on Monday. It was 19,511 on May 15 when the stricter restrictions were imposed.

Meanwhile, the state government has taken all necessary steps to ensure vaccination for the maximum number of people at the earliest.

The state would be receiving 22 doses of vaccines in the month of June compared to that of 18 lakh that it received in May, for which it has already incurred an investment of Rs 114 crores.

So far, 1.41 crore people in the state have received vaccines. It includes 1.01 crore that received only the first dose while the remaining 40 lakh received the second dose as well.

Around 9 lakh superspreaders have also been vaccinated.

The state government has also come up with an oxygen management booklet.