West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday advised people to stay away from public gatherings for a couple of months to avoid any spread of the deadly coronavirus infection, but the irony lay in that she came out with the suggestion while addressing an assembly of around ten thousand people.

Days after the central government made public a detailed ‘dos and donts’ that included a directive to put on hold all mass meetings to combat the disease, which has been declared a pandemic by World Health Organisation, Banerjee participated in an official event at the Netaji Indoor stadium to hand out the Khel Samman awards.

Refering to an advisory issued by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry to ensure “no public gathering takes place”, Banerjee said: “For the next one or two months, we should stay away from big gatherings.” “We have a n umber of international events. We will have to do what others are doing,” she said.

She explained that though the Central government has advisied against holding any gatherings or events, “there was no way we could have cancelled this programme, because such occasions don’t come every day”.

Reading out the Central government circular, she asked people not to shake hands but to greet others with folded hands. “We should also wash our hands hourly for 20 seconds,” she said.

The state government was scheduled to hand over grants to 26,000 clubs at the programme, but she asked them not to queue up as the cheques would be distributed from the respective police stations.