Representational image.
In new guidelines, all inbound flight passengers to West Bengal shall have to be either fully (doubly) vaccinated or furnish an RT-PCR negative report for a test conducted within 72 hours of such flight departure, Kolkata airport informed on Monday.
Also, as per West Bengal government directives, thrice a week restrictions on flight travels shall be applicable only for cities of Nagpur, Pune and Ahmedabad. The instructions stand effective from today (November 1).
Bengal's current Covid situation
On Sunday, the number of fresh coronavirus cases in West Bengal marginally declined with the state recording 914 new infections, 66 less than the previous day’s figure, a health department bulletin said.
Of the COVID-19 cases registered in the last 24 hours, Kolkata recorded the highest with 274, followed by neighbouring North 24 Parganas district with 144, the bulletin said. The respective figures were 272 and 148 on Saturday.
Apart from Kolkata and North 24 Parganas, the majority of the cases were recorded in adjoining districts of South 24 Parganas (75), Howrah (73) and Hooghly (58), according to the bulletin.
The state recorded 15 fresh Covid fatalities on Sunday, two more than the previous day, with the metropolis and North 24 Parganas districts accounting for six deaths each.
The coronavirus death toll is now 9,141, and the caseload is 15,92,908, the bulletin said.
To keep itself ready to "combat a probable third surge of Covid-19 cases", the state government has ordered the setting up of additional Covid wards at different medical colleges, super speciality hospitals and some district and local-level state-run hospitals.
It has directed the setting up of 100-bed pre-fabricated wards at 18 medical colleges hospitals, super speciality hospitals, district hospitals and sub-divisional hospitals across the state at Rs 7.50 crore per unit.
It has also ordered the setting up of 10 such wards with 20 beds each at the rural and block primary health centre levels at Rs 35 lakhs per unit.
Apart from these, one pre-fabricated Covid ward of 50 beds will also be set up at Jhalda sub-divisional hospital in Purulia at a cost of Rs 3.
50 crore.
The positivity rate decreased to 1.93 per cent from 2.08 per cent on Saturday as the number of daily tests increased slightly from 47,131 to 47,417, it said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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