The Bengal Government on Tuesday extended the ongoing Corona-induced lockdown to the entire State and till March 31. Earlier the measure as taken for only urban municipal areas and till the midnight of March 27.
Announcing the situation to be grave Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee following a review meeting said “we have assessed the situation and it has been decided that the ongoing lockdown will be extended to the entire state from 5 pm today,” adding the “lockdown which was earlier scheduled till March 27 will now extend to March 31.” The Chief Minister said “these are extraordinary and grave situation. So the entire State will now come under the lockdown. Earlier it was confined to the urban municipal areas only … I will ask the people not to panic but remain alert and cooperate with the Government.”
Providing reasons behind the Tuesday’s decision the Chief Minister referred to a case study saying “we have gone through a case study where we found that the first one lakh infections took 67 days whereas the next one lakh infections took 11 days only” and more alarmingly “it took just four days for the third one lakh infections. Hence the gravity of the situation is huge and we have to take some hard decisions to save the lives of the common people.”
Banerjee who on Monday held an all-party meeting inviting suggestions from the political parties on Tuesday announced a one-time help of Rs 1,000 for the workers in unorganized sector.“We are bringing a scheme through the "Prachesta" scheme whereby Rs 1,000 each will be given to the workers of the unorganized sector,” considering the loss of income they would suffer during the lockdown period, she said. The Chief Minister earlier took an extraordinary decision to convert the 3,000 bed Calcutta Medical College and Hospital --- the oldest such facility in Asia --- into a fully dedicated medical care centre for Corona patients and personally paid surprise visits to all the medical colleges and other hospitals including the Beleghata ID Hospital and Rajarhat quarantine centre.
Meanwhile Bengal saw two more Corona cases taking the number up to nine in the past one week. While the first patient recently visited London the second patient made a trip to Egypt with whole of his family. While the patients have been admitted to Beleghata ID Hospital their families have been sent on quarantine, sources said.The Health Department sources were awaiting the pathological reports of a third patient who on Tuesday was admitted to the NRS Medical College Hospital with fever and acute respiratory problem.