Bengal Covid curbs on standalone stores – Times of India

Kolkata: The West Bengal government has revised its partial lockdown order issued on Friday evening to include standalone stores whose timings have also been regulated to five hours a day, split between morning and evening. Guests at weddings and other family gatherings have been limited to 50 people.
The further measures were announced in the wake of appeals by doctors to impose stricter curbs to bring down the rate of Covid-19 infection and allow some breather to hospitals and healthcare workers. At the current rate of increase in infections, health experts say it will be virtually impossible for health infrastructure such as beds and oxygen to keep pace. More worryingly, ensuring care to patients will prove challenging as doctors and nurses will prove inadequate in the wake of rising patient load. Kolkata is recording around 3,000 new infections every day.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation has already prepped up its arrangements for strict containment measures and has identified localities and highrises that have emerged as Covid hotspots in the past two-and-a-half weeks.
Localities where transmission of Covid has become rampant include Maniktala, Kankurgachi, Bhowanipore, Ballygunge, Dhakuria, Alipore, New Alipore and high-rises and housing complexes along Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.
The civic authority has also asked police to keep a watch on markets in Burrabazar, Maniktala, College Street, Taltala, Bhowanipore, Behala, Bijoygarh and Garia. KMC has also shut down all parks.
In the supplementary notification issued by the state government on Saturday, standalone shops other than pharmacies, grocery, milk, sweets, telecom, electricity and transport have also been asked to follow the timings that were announced for markets: 7am to 10am and 3pm to 5pm.
Doctors feel the government must also take a long hard look at commute in buses and local trains to regulate crowding and break the chain of infection. They also feel measures have to be enforced in word and spirit to prevent people from crowding, be it at para tea shops or local clubs.