Broad-based containment zones to be locked down till July 31

Kolkata: The state government on Sunday gave power to district magistrates to take decisions on imposing "town-wide" or "zone-wide" lockdown if necessary to stem the spike in COVID-19 cases. At the same time, the lockdown at the "broad-based" containment zones have been extended till July 31.

The state Home department has sent an advisory to all district authorities stating that "district magistrates may take a view on continuing lockdown: town-wide or zone-wise depending on the local situation".

It has also been stated in the advisory that they can impose the lockdown for 5 to 7 days.

The state government had imposed strict lockdown at "broad-based" containment zones that were constituted by clubbing buffer zones and containment zones from July 9. It was initially for seven days. Later, it was extended till July 19 and now the state government has further extended it till July 31 when 2,278 people tested positive and the disease claimed 36 lives in the past 24 hours. On Sunday, 1,344 people were released after getting cured.

At present, there are 763 containment zones in the state. It went up by 24 in the past 24 hours. The containment zone went up in West Midnapore by 19, North Dinajpur by six and South Dinajpur by one. Two areas went out of containment zones in Bankura. The number of containment zones in Kolkata that was 32, however, remained unchanged. Similarly, the number of containment zones in Howrah, South and North 24-Parganas and Hooghly remained unchanged in the past 24 hours.

On July 14, "town-wide lockdown" in five north Bengal towns - Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, Malda, Cooch Behar and Raiganj was also announced from Nabanna. With Sunday's advisory, respective district magistrates can take decisions on imposing "town-wide" lockdown as per requirement.

On Sunday, once again lockdown was imposed for the next seven days from Monday in Jalpaiguri Town and Cooch Behar Town.