Though the situation is still not better, the South Dinajpur district Covid taskforce has decided to restore normality by following only certain the guidelines ahead of Durga Puja. Several containment zones had been marked in the district in the past four months and various restrictions were in place. However, in today’s meeting of the task force, officials decided that there will be no more containment zones in the district.

“With this de-notification of containment zones in South Dinajpur, the lockdown and restrictions on free movement have been removed. There was a demand from the business community in the district to extend the times of relaxation of the restrictions. So far, containment zones had been enjoying relaxation from 8 am to 4 pm, while various restrictions had been imposed the rest of the time. However, the containment zoned have been withdrawn ahead of the Pujas and the lockdown has practically been withdrawn. Only certain restrictions as per the ‘Unlock 4’ will be implemented,” an official source said.

With 38 new infections in the past 24 hours, 4703 people have been infected by Covid-19 in the district so far. A total of 4377 patients have recovered so far, while 75 of them were discharged from hospitals and from isolation today itself, sources said.

“It was decided in today’s meeting that there would be no containment zones in the district. Everything will be normal, but we will strictly follow the Covid guidelines and restrictions like the use of masks, sanitization, social distancing, avoiding huge gatherings etc,” South Dinajpur District Magistrate Nikhil Nirmal said.

84 new Covid cases in Malda Keeping its upward trend, Malda last night found 84 new cases of Covid-19 in among the 971 samples tested at the VRDL in the Malda Medical College and Hospital, sources said. Habibpur block remained in the top with 26 cases. The district now has over 6,000 cases with 51 deaths and almost 600 positive cases.

73 cases in Darjeeling district Darjeeling district reported 73 cases today, including 28 in the SMC, four in Darjeeling Municipality, two in Kharibari, three at Sukna, 15 in Matigara, two in Mirik, nine in Naxalbari, seven in Phansidewa and three in Sikhia Pokhari, sources said. The Jalpaiguri portion of the SMC detected four cases, they said. Also, 53 patients were either discharged from hospitals or they ended their home isolation today.