West Bengal government on Tuesday said it would allow domestic flights from Mumbai and Delhi thrice a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from January 5.

The government last week announced suspension of direct flights from the United Kingdom landing at Kolkata airport from Monday and mandated Covid tests for all passengers arriving on international flights, reported Hindustan Times.

West Bengal Additional Chief Secretary BP Gopalika said the situation will be reviewed depending on Covid-19 cases in the state.

Earlier on Sunday, the state government said it would restrict flights from New Delhi and Mumbai, the two cities witnessing the largest surge in Covid-19 infections in recent weeks, to just twice a week in a measure to combat the spread of the pandemic in the state.

Apart from this, the state government implemented a new set of restrictions, indicating that movement of vehicles, people and public gatherings of any kind shall be prohibited between 10 PM to 5 AM. However, emergency and essential services shall be permitted during this time.

Meanwhile, while all markets and shopping malls will be allowed to remain open till 10 PM, at half their capacities, local trains will be allowed to operate at 50% capacity till 7 PM. Further, theatres and cinema halls will also be allowed to operate with 50% capacity, whereas conferences and meetings have been allowed with 50% capacity or with a maximum of 200 people at a time, whichever is lower.

The fresh restrictions announced on Sunday were announced after West Bengal reported 4,512 new Covid-19 cases, which translates into an increase of the daily count of new Covid cases by 10 times in less than a week. On Monday last, the state reported just 439 new cases.

Kolkata has registered the maximum number of cases among all districts with 2398 cases, up from 204 on Monday (Deceber 27). According to aata compiled by the Union health ministry, Kolkata’s weekly positivity rate has risen to 23.4% for the week, December 24 – 31.

Kolkata’s mayor Firhad Hakim earlier said that about 80% of the Covid-19 cases reported in the city were asymptomatic, another 17% have mild symptoms and only 3% of the patients needed to be treated at hospitals.

Officials said that the restrictions will remain into force till January 15, after which they would be reviewed.