The West Bengal government on Thursday extended the ban on flights to Kolkata from six cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, that have a high number of coronavirus cases till August 15. The ban was first announced for two weeks on July 4.

“The restriction on arriving flights to Kolkata Airport from 6 cities viz Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad has been extended upto 15th August 2020,” Kolkata Airport tweeted.

Earlier on Thursday, the Kolkata airport also announced that flight operations will be suspended for seven days in August, when West Bengal will observe a complete lockdown due to the coronavirus crisis. The dates on which flights won’t operate from the airport are August 5, 8, 16, 17, 23, 24 and 31.

Last week, the Kolkata airport had announced that flights will remain suspended on July 25 and 29, in accordance with the “two days a week” lockdown in the state.

West Bengal has reported over 67,000 coronavirus cases and 1,536 deaths so far, according to data from the Union health ministry. The number of coronavirus cases in India went up to 16,38,870. on Friday and the toll reached 35,747.


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