West Bengal comes to grinding halt on second day of bi-weekly lockdown

Deserted roads, empty offices and shut shops on Saturday accentuated the second day of the bi-weekly complete lockdown in West Bengal, where surging COVID-19 cases have prompted the government to enforce stricter norms to break the chain of infection.

All modes of transport were off the streets, public and private offices, banks, commercial establishments and markets remained closed, officials said.

Only medicine shops and other healthcare facilities were open during the lockdown across the state, they said.

Flight operations at the Kolkata airport were also suspended following a request by the state government to the Civil Aviation Ministry in this regard.

The first of the two lockdowns for next week is scheduled on Wednesday.

Police patrolled all major traffic intersections in the metropolis to keep a check on people coming out on the streets without any valid reason, and barricades were put up in various parts of the state, the officials said.

Several special train services at Howrah and Sealdah stations were also cancelled, they said.

At least 1,082 people were arrested from different parts of the city for violating lockdown norms and spitting in the open, a senior officer of the Kolkata Police said.

A total of 14 vehicles were also impounded for flouting protocols, he said.

Meanwhile, a constable and a civic volunteer of the Kolkata Police were injured in the city's EM Bypass area after a vehicle with four occupants hit them in an attempt to flee when it was stopped for violating lockdown norms, the officer said.

The driver of the vehicle was arrested and booked under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, he said.

Both the constable and the civic volunteer are stated to be stable now, sources said.

West Bengal reported a record 42 COVID-19 fatalities in a day, which pushed the death toll in the state to 1,332, the health department said on Saturday.

The state registered 2,404 new coronavirus cases, the highest one-day spike, raising the tally to 56,377, it said in a bulletin. 

Image credits: PTI