West Bengal relaxes Covid restrictions, health & hygiene protocols to continue

The order further said, “Accordingly, it is hereby notified that restrictions as currently in force by aforesaid orders are withdrawn. However, the advisory in respect to health and hygiene protocols, including wearing of a mask at all times, hand hygiene and sanitisation of public places, shall continue and should be strictly observed until further orders.”

State administration sources said for the past one month the positive cases remained under one hundred per day and the death toll became almost zero in the past two weeks. After seeing this development, the state government decided to relax the Covid protocols and restrictions.

A senior official of the state government said, “The health and hygiene protocols will remain in force because the expert committee thinks that the Covid cases have decreased but the threat of the pandemic is not yet over. So, the continuing health and hygiene protocols will help the government take necessary precautionary measures swiftly if the cases rise again.”

However, a section of administrative officers said that after the relaxation, maintaining health and hygiene protocols would be difficult.

The Chief Secretary’s communique also said that the district administration should monitor whether the health and hygiene protocols were being followed or not.

In the past 24 hours, the state recorded 33 new cases, taking the tally of total cases to 20,17,348, the health department bulletin said.

The state recorded 57 Covid-19 recoveries in the past 24 hours, while no death was reported.

On Wednesday, 12,895 samples were tested.

The recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state now stands at 98.92 per cent. The state has recorded 21,197 deaths, so far.