Bars, restaurants, malls allowed to function with limitations in Bengal

Kolkata, June 3 With the number of Covid cases shrinking steadily for the last one week, the West Bengal government has decided to give further relaxations, allowing bars, restaurants and malls to function with limited facilities.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the relaxations in her meeting with different chambers at the state secretariat on Thursday.

Accepting the request of the chambers, Banerjee said, "Covid-19 contagion is declining in West Bengal following the imposition of restrictions. Restaurants can be open for three hours in the evening from 5 pm to 8 pm provided the people working there are vaccinated."

Though the Chief Minister didn't specify the date of the opening, senior officials indicated that it will be in effect soon and everything will be clear after the state government issues notification on this.

Giving a careful thought to the proposal of opening up of the malls, the Banerjee said that the government is carefully considering the proposal of allowing shopping malls to open with 25 per cent workforce after the ongoing Covid-related restrictions come to an end on June 15 indicating that the government is clearly thinking to withdraw some of the restrictions after the second of this lockdown comes to an end.

The government's decision to give relaxations was backed up by the sharp declines of covid cases in the past one week. When before the imposition of the restrictions the number of fresh cases were hovering around 20,000 cases per day, in the last couple of days it came down below 10,000 making it obvious that like that in the entire country, covid, in this state, is also showing signs of slowing down.

The CM said that her government was mulling the option of vaccinating domestic helps in the same way it has planned to inoculate hawkers, bus conductors, vendors and others. Altogether 1.4 crore of people in West Bengal have been inoculated so far, she said.

At the meeting, Banerjee also urged representatives of the chambers to help the government in vaccinating the population of the state.

"The government cannot single-handedly vaccinate everyone. I will urge you to come forward and help us to inoculate the people," she said.

The CM also sought their help in relief works in districts ravaged by Cyclone Yaas.

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