All shops, restaurants and bars can remain open as per normal operational hours, the notification read. It added, “Late closing of bars may be allowed as per extant rules.”

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

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

The night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am, as per coronavirus restrictions, has been withdrawn by the state government in view of Durga Puja, which begins on 11 October.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus caseload 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 six more people succumbed to the infection. The bulletin also said 746 patients were cured of the infection in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate is 98.32 per cent. 

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

Two fresh fatalities each were recorded in North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts. One death each was reported from Kolkata and Darjeeling. 

The new Covid-19 cases included 158 from Kolkata and 128 from North 24 Parganas. Since Thursday, 38,069 samples were tested for the virus in the state, taking the total number of such clinical examinations 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 inoculated on Friday.