West Bengal wears deserted look on first day of bi-weekly lockdown

Normal life came to a grinding halt in West Bengal as a complete lockdown was enforced across the state, to break the chain of rapidly rising Covid-19 cases

Normal life came to a grinding halt in West Bengal on Thursday as a complete lockdown was enforced across the state, to break the chain of rapidly rising COVID-19 cases.

The state government has clamped renewed restrictions twice a week to bring the coronavirus situation under control.

Officials said shops were shut and all modes of transport stayed off the roads on Thursday.

A similar lockdown will be in place on July 25 and 29, the step being implemented amid admission of community transmission in some parts of the state.

Government and private offices, commercial establishments, public and private transport, as well as activities other than those under emergency services will not function on the lockdown days.

Special police teams were seen patrolling various parts of the city, especially containment zones, throughout the day. Barricades were put up in various parts of the state to stop people from coming out of their homes, the officials said.

Several people were arrested during the day for flouting lockdown guidelines and a number of vehicles were impounded, police said.

"We have arrested around 3,800 people till 6 pm today for violating lockdown norms and impounded 68 vehicles," a senior police officer said.

The state presently has 962 broad-based containment zones.

West Bengal's COVID-19 tally breached the 50,000-mark on Thursday with a record 2,436 new cases reported in 24 hours, according to the state health department.

Thirty-four fatalities were reported during the period, taking the death toll to 1,225, it said.