Small towns across Bengal have also been put under lockdown to contain the spread (File)
West Bengal has reported 1,894 new coronavirus cases today with 563 from state-capital Kolkata alone. 26 people have died in the last 24 hours in the state as the positivity rate continues to rise with a plummeting discharge rate.
Bengal today extended the ban on flights coming into Kolkata from six cities across the country - Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur till July 31. The flights were first banned from July 6 until July 19.
"The restriction on arriving flights to #KolkataAirport from 6 cities viz Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad has been extended up to 31st July," Kolkata airport tweeted, adding, "The temporary restriction on arriving flights to #KolkataAirport from 6 cities viz Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad is on the request of State Govt. to restrict movement from high prevalence cities of #coronavirus cases in order to contain the spread of #COVID19."
Small towns across Bengal have also been put under lockdown to arrest the surge in coronavirus cases. Besides Kolkata and adjoining areas, several places in north Bengal are also seeing COVID-19 cases soar.
Barasat, Malda, Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, Raiganj and Cooch Behar in the state are already in lockdown till July 31. Today, more areas were added to the list, including Arambagh in Hooghly district and Tamluk and Kanthi in East Midnapore.
The alarm bells are being sounded not only because of soaring numbers of new cases everyday but also because the discharge rate has fallen from 65.35 % on July 1 to 58.54%, and the positivity rate has risen from 3.85% to 5.62% in the state.
In the last 24 hours, South Dinajpur district reported 89 new cases, Malda 88, Darjeeling 74, Jalpaiguri 31 and north Dinajpur 29.
India today crossed the one million-mark with the biggest 24-hour spike of 34,956 coronavirus cases. 687 deaths have been reported from across the country in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry had said Friday morning.