West Bengal, especially its capital Kolkata, has seen a dramatic drop in the number of daily COVID-19 cases overnight, giving the city breather and prompting the state government to put in place some measures imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions have been encouraged to ease.
On Sunday alone, the number of new cases reported in Kolkata and across West Bengal stood at 3,893 and 14,938 respectively. By Monday, these figures had fallen to 1,879 and 9,385 respectively.
On Monday evening, the state government allowed opening of gyms with 50% capacity till 9 pm, provided the staff and users are fully immunized and COVID free. The staging of Jatra has also been allowed up to 50% seating. Film and TV crews can also now return to work as long as they follow COVID-appropriate protocols.
“Overall the situation is not very bad. Hospitals were not burdened. In fact, beds are available. One or two COVID patients may be on ventilator, but otherwise on ventilator are mostly patients who came to the hospital due to other ailments but turned out to be COVID positive as this strain is highly contagious,” Leading ENT specialist Dr. Arjun Dasgupta says Hindu,
Dr. Dasgupta said, “With the easing of restrictions, people’s confidence is slowly coming back and the numbers may rise again, but the normalcy at this point of time is not too bad.”
book fair postponed
Also on Monday it was announced that the Kolkata Book Fair will be postponed for a month. The event which could not be held last year, was to be held from January 31 to February 13, but now it will start from February 28 and will run till March 13.
“Due to the third wave of the pandemic and the postponement of the municipal elections in mid-February, the 45th International Kolkata Book Fair is being rescheduled as per the advice of the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary. Book lovers, publishers and authors are very happy with the new dates,” said Tridib Chatterjee, Honorary General Secretary, Publishers and Booksellers Guild, which organizes the fair.
Many smaller publishers, centered around College Street and heavily dependent on book fairs to sell and promote their titles, are feeling relieved about the postponement.
“The atmosphere at the moment is uncertain – this may not be the best time to hold the fair. By the end of February we will have a clearer picture – and hopefully a better position – and more people coming to the event. can,” said Antara Bhattacharjee, who runs Palok, a Bengali publishing firm.
“The last two years have been very difficult for publishers like us. The income was nowhere close to the investment we had made, we couldn’t publicize our new titles, we couldn’t promote our authors. We hope to see a change in our circumstances during the book fair,” said Ms Bhattacharjee.
The book fair, which pays tribute to several personalities who have passed away in recent times, including Saumitra Chatterjee, Shankha Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Buddhadev Guha, will now add a new name to that list: that of the iconic painter Narayan Debnath. He died on Tuesday at the age of 96.
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