Coronavirus: Bengal To Go Into Near-Total Lockdown From Monday Afternoon  

The Bengal government has ordered a near-total lockdown from Monday afternoon.

A notification issued by the state health department on Sunday afternoon announced all public transport, including buses, trains, taxis, auto-rickshaws and even cycle-rickshaws, will have to go off the roads from 4 pm on Monday (23 March) to the intervening midnight of March 27-28 (that is, 24:00 hours of 27 March).

The state has also ordered closure of all shops, commercial establishments, offices, factories, workshops and godowns. The order has been issued under the newly-framed West Bengal Epidemic Disease Covid-19 Regulations, 2020.

The order also directs people to stay at home “and come out only for basic services while strictly following social distancing guidelines”.

“All foreign returnees and other such persons so required by the health personnel (sic) are directed to remain under strict home quarantine for a period as decided by local health authorities,” the order read.

The exemptions to the public transport ban are ambulances or other vehicles ferrying patients to and from hospitals, vehicles transporting passengers to and from airports, railway stations and bus terminals and vehicles carrying food and essential commodities.

Essential services, the IT and ITeS sectors, telecom, banks, media, medical stores, grocery stores have also been exempted from the shutdown order.

The order bans congregations of seven or more persons in public places and warns that violators will be booked under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code. Police and civil administrative officers have been asked to ensure strict compliance of the order.