West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that all jatras, plays, OATs, cinemas and all musical, dance, recital and magic shows would be allowed to function with 50 participants or less from October 1.

"To return to normalcy, jatras, plays, OATs, cinemas and all musical, dance, recital and magic shows shall be allowed to function with 50 participants or less from 1 Oct," Banerjee tweeted late on Saturday night. The CM said that it would be a subject to adherence to physical distancing norms, wearing of masks and compliance to precautionary protocols. All cinema halls and theatres remained shut since the Covid-19 lockdown began in March this year across the state.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 death tally in West Bengal on Saturday went up to 4,721 with 56 more people lost their lives to the disease, the state health department said in a bulletin. The total surged to 2,44,240 after 3,181 people tested positive for the COVID-19.