Clip of Mamata Banerjee's Aug 2020 Lockdown Rules Shared as Recent

The COVID-19 curbs have been relaxed in West Bengal by the Mamata Banerjee government following the second wave.

Fact-Check | The COVID-19 lockdown restrictions have been relaxed in West Bengal by the Mamata Banerjee government following the second wave of the pandemic.

(Photo: The Quint)

A video showing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announcing COVID-19 lockdown rules in the state for the month of August is being shared with a claim that it is recent. In the video, the Bengal CM announces dates for complete lockdown in the state.

However, we found that the video of the announcement is from August 2020 and not recent. The lockdown in the state has been relaxed following the second wave of the pandemic and contrary to the viral claim, the latest order does not have any mention of a complete lockdown.

CLAIM

The clip is being shared with the caption: "Complete Lockdown list for the month of August 2021 in West Bengal". It was followed by the dates for the "complete lockdown", which were, 2, 5, 8, 9, 16, 17, 23, 24, and 31 August.

In the clip, Banerjee was seen announcing the dates of complete lockdown in the state for the month of August.

We also found that the video was shared by a verified YouTube channel called "Khabar Pratidin", where it garnered over 18,000 views.

An archive of the post can be found here.

Archives of more such posts can be found here and here.

We also received the claim as a query on our WhatsApp tipline.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We looked up with the keywords "complete lockdown in West Bengal" and didn't find any recent news report on the topic.

In the search results, we found videos and news reports from last year that talked about the Banerjee's lockdown announcements for the month of August 2020. The stories were posted on 28 and 29 July about Banerjee's announcement that took place on 28 July.

A link to the post can be found here.

We looked on Mamata Banerjee's official Facebook page for the press conference and found two videos posted on the same date. In the second video, which was 10 min 31 secs long, we found clips that were a part of the viral video.

The viral video, which has been cut and stitched from the second press conference, starts at 22 seconds into the press conference. Banerjee held the second press conference to clarify some details that she missed in the previous meet while announcing the lockdown dates. The confusion in the lockdown dates was mentioned in this report by The Print.

WHAT ARE THE LOCKDOWN RULES IN WEST BENGAL?

The West Bengal government issued a notification on 29 July 2021 on the latest curbs. The notification said that the rules announced on 14 July would remain in effect till 15 August with an additional change.

According to the notification, "Government programmes will be allowed in indoor places with not more than 50 percent of the total seating capacity from 31 July."

Night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am, which was a part of the previous notification, was still in place as well as 50 percent capacity in public transportation.

There was no mention of a complete lockdown on any day of the month in the notification.

Evidently, an old press conference of the West Bengal CM was shared with a false claim that it showed her announcing the dates of complete lockdown in the state for the month of August 2021.

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