Kolkata, Jul 27 (PTI) Amid the growing trend of people flouting the Covid-19 safety protocols set by the state government, West Bengal Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi on Tuesday directed all district magistrates to handle incidents of such violation "very strictly", official sources said.

In a letter to the DMs, Dwivedi directed them to increase vigilance during the night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am to ensure that Covid-19 protocols are not flouted.

"As per the instructions of the chief secretary, district authorities must enhance the number of police personnel during the night curfew as well as CCTVs. District administrations can also utilise the services of the officials of the Enforcement Directorate," a source said.

Several hundred people have been arrested in the state for flouting the Covid-19 norms for partying and coming out at night unnecessarily.

Dwidevi also asked them to keep a watch on hotels, restaurants and pubs to check whether or not Covid norms are being followed there.

"The CS has also asked the district administration to pay special attention to inter-state and international borders," he said.

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 positivity rate in West Bengal declined to 1.54 per cent on Tuesday, a bulletin released by the state health department said.

The death toll rose to 18,095 with 10 more deaths while the tally went up to 15,24,958 with 662 new coronavirus cases.

In the last 24 hours, there were 838 recoveries which improved the discharge rate to 98.07 per cent. Till Tuesday, 14,95,483 people recovered from the disease in the state.

The number of active cases currently is 11,380.

Since Monday, 43,113 samples have been tested in West Bengal taking the total number of such clinical examinations to 1,55,53,998, the bulletin added.

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