West Bengal further relaxes Covid’s restrictions between 10-20 October. Details here

All shops, restaurants and bars may remain open in accordance with normal operating hours, the notice read. He added, “Late closures can be allowed in accordance with existing rules.”

Earlier today, owners of fine dining restaurants in Kolkata had urged the Mamata government to extend the closing hour by another hour of 10:30 during Durga Puja days in view of lifting a night curfew during the festive season.

The restaurant owners had taken their appeal to the chief secretary of state. “We have urged the government to extend the closing time, now 10.30 pm, by one hour as many pandal hoppers will not hit the road like they did in the pre-Covid years with the Calcutta High Court and the administration declares the pandals as no access zones, “said Nitin Kothari, owner of the famous ‘Peter Cat’ and ‘Mocambo’ restaurants in downtown Park Street, PTI .

The night curfew between 11 pm and 5 am, in accordance with coronavirus restrictions, has been withdrawn by the state government in view of Durga Puja, which begins on 11 October.

Meanwhile, coronavirus case load in Bengal increased to 15,74,801 on Friday after the state reported 784 new cases, the health department said in a bulletin.

The death toll rose to 18,882 after a further six people succumbed to the infection. The bulletin also said that 746 patients had been cured of the infection in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate is 98.32 percent.

A total of 15,48, 294 people have recovered from the disease until now. Bengal now has 7,625 active Covid-19 cases.

Two fresh deaths were recorded each in the North 24 districts of Parganas and Nadia. One death was reported each by Kolkata and Darjeeling.

The new Covid-19 cases included 158 from Kolkata and 128 from North 24 Parganas. Since Thursday, 38,069 samples have been tested for the virus in the state, taking the total of such clinical audits to 1,84,35,532, the bulletin said.

As many as 6.19 crore people have received at least one dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 in the state. An estimated 11,42,256 people were vaccinated on Friday.