Bengal Lockdown: Mamta Banerjee now allows domestic flights!

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the West Bengal government extended a bi-weekly lockdown in the state by mid-September. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced new dates for a partial lockout for September.

The Mamata Banerjee government relaxed restrictions on domestic flights from Kolkata to high-rise locations from September. Banerjee said, "We have received a number of requests from six COVID-19 hotspot states to resume flight operations. So from September 1, flight services to these six states can resume three times a week."

The West Bengal government had earlier banned domestic flights to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad till the end of August. This decision was taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the eastern state.

Banerjee said that Metro Railways can resume services from September by following social distancing and other precautionary norms.

West Bengal lockdown schedules for August, September are as follows:

27 August, Thursday

31 August, Monday

September 7, Monday

September 11, Friday

September 12, Saturday

West Bengal COVID-19 Lockdown Guidelines

All other shops across the state will be closed two days a week. All government and private offices, commercial establishments will also remain closed. Banerjee announced that educational institutions including schools, colleges and universities would remain closed till 20 September.

All public and private transport will remain closed. However, petrol pumps are allowed to operate within days of complete lockdown.

Domestic flight services from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata will also be closed on days when the lockdown is being implemented in West Bengal. Passengers were first requested to contact the airlines concerned to change their flight schedule.

More than 1.44 lakh coronavirus cases have been confirmed since the outbreak in West Bengal. The active number of COVID-19 patients increased to 27,349. The total number of coronavirus patients recovered was 1.14 lakh. The deadly novel virus claimed that 2,909 people live in the state.