Covid-19 curbs till June 30; offices, restaurants to open with restrictions

Kolkata: Extending the safety restrictions in view of Covid until June 30, the Mamata Banerjee government announced a set of relaxations in order to facilitate the resumption of economic activities allowing the functioning of government and private offices, restaurants and retail shops in shopping malls by following the set guidelines.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: "We need to look at saving lives and restoring jobs. So, it is better to allow certain activities instead of a complete shutdown." She has also stated that already two crore people in the state have been vaccinated. The Covid positivity rate during the Assembly elections was 20 to 22 percent, even going up to 32 percent during the last phase of the polls. Now, it has dropped to 6 percent.

There were 19,117 new cases and 147 fatalities on the day Covid restrictions were imposed (May 16). The number of new cases recorded on Monday was 3,519 with 78 deaths.

Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi announced the new set of guidelines that has to be followed during the safety restrictions, which have been extended for another 15 days.

Under the new guidelines, all government offices will function with 25 percent strength while private and corporate offices can remain open from 10 am to 4 pm with not more than 25 percent strength of the total manpower in each shift. For government offices, heads of departments will be preparing rosters and facilitate transport arrangements. The private offices have to make arrangements for their own transport facilities with the public transport system, including buses, inland waterways, sub-urban trains and Metro services remaining suspended.

Retail shops in shopping malls and market complexes will be allowed to open between 11 am and 6 pm with 50 percent workforce and restricted entry to 30 percent people or customers of the total capacity. As assured by the Chief Minister during an interaction with Chambers of Commerce a few days ago, restaurants and bars, including hotels and shopping malls will be allowed to remain open from noon to 8 pm with 50 percent sitting capacity. All markets and shops related to vegetables, fruits, groceries, milk, bread, meat and eggs will remain open, as usual, from 7 am to 11 am while other shops will remain operative from 11 am to 6 pm.

All production units and industries, including the IT and ITeS sector, have been allowed to function with 50 percent of the total strength in each shift subject to vaccination of employees and other Covid protocols. Morning walks and physical exercise at parks have been allowed from 6 am to 9 am only for people who have already received the double dose of the vaccine.

Sporting activities can resume in stadium and clubs but without spectators, while gyms, spas, swimming pools, beauty parlours and cinema halls will continue to remain closed. Educational institutions will also remain closed.

The state government has allowed indoor and outdoor shooting and associated activities related to TV programmes and cinema with maximum 50 persons per unit at a time, provided all have received vaccines.

Permission has also been granted to resume tea-auction with 25 percent of the total manpower.

Movement of private vehicles, taxis and auto-rickshaws will remain prohibited apart from cases of emergency and while ferrying a passenger to and from hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic centres, clinics, vaccination centres, airports, terminal points and media houses.

However, curbs on all sorts of outdoor activities apart from emergency cases from 9 pm to 5 am will continue.