Kolkata: In its endeavour to fight the pandemic — giving equal importance to both "life and livelihood" — the Bengal government has extended Covid-induced restrictions till August 30 but reduced the time period for restrictions on outdoor activities at night by two hours. Now, night curbs would remain imposed from 11 pm to 5 am, on all days, from August 16.
The state government extended the Covid restrictions for another 15 days allowing reopening of theatres and auditoriums with 50 per cent capacity. Swimming pools have also been allowed to reopen with conditions to function with half its capacity at a time. However, the suburban train services would resume only after 50 per cent of the rural populace gets vaccinated.
Announcing the relaxations, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: "Earlier, the restrictions on outdoor activities apart from essential services was from 9 pm to 5 am every day. We have decided to reduce it by two hours and it will be from 11 pm to 5 am from August 16. The relaxation has been given considering people's demands as it will help in further rejuvenation of business activities."
There had been demands from different sectors, mainly the hospitality industry, to give relaxation on outdoor activities at night for two more hours. Restaurants and bars, including in hotels and shopping malls, are currently allowed to remain open from noon to 8 pm with 50 per cent seating capacity.
"We have to wait for the order of extension to come out to know whether time for bars and restaurants have been extended beyond 8 pm," said an officer of the Excise Directorate.
In connection with resumption of suburban train services, Banerjee said: "Vaccination coverage, so far, is of around 75 per cent in the urban parts of the state. But sub-urban train services cannot be resumed unless we vaccinate at least 50 per cent of the rural populace especially in the districts, including Hooghly, Howrah, Nadia, Burdwan, North and South 24-Parganas.
We have to maintain the restrictions as there is apprehension that the third wave may hit in September and according to experts mostly children would get affected. So, we cannot take the risk of running local trains despite knowing that there are grievances among people for not allowing resumption of the services. Life is more precious than anything else."
Once again, holding the Centre responsible for inadequate supply of vaccines to Bengal, Banerjee said her government is leaving no stone unturned to increase the number of vaccinations. So far, about 3.32 crore people have been vaccinated in the state. It includes 2.39 crore who received only the first dose while 92 lakh received both the shots.
"Despite having the infrastructure to vaccinate 11 lakh people, only 3.5 to 4 lakh people are getting vaccinated in Bengal in a day as there is no sufficient supply from the Centre," Banerjee said.
Reacting sharply against a news channel for telecasting that number of Covid cases in Bengal has gone up, Banerjee said: "It is completely untrue as only 600 to 800 new cases get detected every day in Bengal while the number in Kerala, Maharashtra, Sikkim and other north-eastern states are much higher. We have reduced the positivity rate to 1.5 percent that went up to 33 percent during the Assembly polls."
The discharge rate in Bengal is as high as 98.15 per cent while the fatality rate, including cases of comorbidity are only 1.19 per cent. The Covid bed occupancy rate has also dropped to 3.79 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Bengal government is prematurely releasing another 73 life convicts above the age of 55 years on humanitarian grounds to decongest correctional homes in the prevailing pandemic situation. Out of 73 convicts, 66 are males while the remaining two are women life convicts. Earlier this month, 63 convicts were released following recommendations of the State Sentence Review Board.
Banerjee also took a dig at the Centre for not recognising 11 lakh farmers from Bengal for the PM-Kisan scheme. She also urged people to stand by the flood-affected people by donating to the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund.