Senior doctors in West Bengal have blamed people's casual approach to lockdown guidelines and quarantine norms for high COVID-19 caseload in the state, and welcomed the TMC government's decision to impose bi-weekly shutdown to stem the spread of the disease.

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Admitting that community transmission of COVID-19 has been detected in a few pockets of Bengal, surgical oncologist Dr Diptendra Sarkar said the "two-day total lockdown across the state will help the administration tackle the situation to a considerable extent". "In several areas, where contact tracing is not possible, community transmission has been detected. But that does not mean that community transmission has happened in the entire state," he said.

Talking about the new shutdown strategy, Dr Sarkar said, "We have to contain the rate of transmission. We have to flatten the curve which has moved upward over a period of time. The lockdown is being imposed in a very calculative manner. "If it is in force on Thursday and Saturday, people wouldn't get much to do on Friday. And Sunday is usually not a busy day. So the shutdown covers more than just two days. If we can continue this in the coming weeks, we might be able to ease the pressure on the health sector."

Another senior physician, Dr Syamasis Bandyopadhyay, said many people have flouted quarantine guidelines over the past few months, leading to the rapid spread of the disease. "There are family members of COVID-19 patients who have not submitted their samples for examination. Some have also violated quarantine norms. These are major reasons for community transmission," he said.

The physician was also skeptical that people might continue to disregard safety norms during this fresh spell of bi-weekly lockdown. "I think many still do not realise the need to be on self quarantine. I doubt how much this complete lockdown will help, under such circumstances."

The Bengal government on July 20 announced a complete lockdown in the state twice a week in its bid to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission. The announcement came as Bengal recorded the highest one-day spike of 2,282 infections, which pushed the caseload to 44,769.