Work From Home For Private Offices, Restaurants Closed: Delhi's New Guidelines Amid COVID Spike

Amid the rising cases of Covid-19 in the national capital, the Delhi government in its latest announcements, ordered the closure of all private offices and restaurants in the city.

Earlier, even private offices and restaurants were allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity. Under the revised guidelines, only those private offices will be allowed to stay open which fall under the essential services/exempted category.

DDMA's new guidelines

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Monday held a high-level meeting and ordered closure of restaurants and bars. However, home delivery and takeaways will be allowed at the eateries. The DDMA meeting was attended by L-G Anil Baijal, CM Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and other government officials.

AFP

Anil Baijal added that during the meeting the Delhi Health Department was advised to make adequate arrangements for additional manpower in hospitals and to scale up the vaccination efforts including for those in age group of 15-18 years.

Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday asked Delhiites not to panic as the hospitalisation rate is lower than what it was during the second wave of the pandemic when the case numbers were similar. ¡°We don¡¯t want to impose lockdown, we won¡¯t if you wear masks. No intent for lockdown as of now,¡± Kejriwal said during his Sunday address.

Existing rules

As per the existing rules, restaurants were allowed to operate dine-in facility at 50 per cent of their seating capacity from 8 am to 10 pm. Bars in the city were also permitted to open with 50 percent seating capacity from 12 noon to 10 pm.

Earlier last week, the DDMA had allowed 100 per cent seating capacity in the buses and Metro trains in view of heavy crowd at bus stands and Metro stations. However, standing passengers are not allowed.

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Covid spike in Delhi

In recent weeks, the Omicron variant has spurred an explosion in new virus cases, prompting the authorities to re-impose stern curbs which were earlier lifted owning to the waning second wave.

Delhi has been witnessing an alarming surge in new COVID-19 cases with the national capital recording nearly 20,000 new infections daily. On Monday, Delhi reported 19,166 new Covid-19 cases and 17 more deaths. The case positivity rate soared to 25 per cent.

In the first 10 days of this month, Delhi has recorded 70 COVID-related deaths, higher than the combine fatalities reported in the city in the last five months.

Reuters

In the last five months ¡ª nine in Covid deaths had been reported December, seven in November, four in October, five in September and 29 in August, according to government data.

Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain said cases in the city are likely to peak ¡°in one or two days, definitely this week¡±, and infections in the third wave will start dipping after that.

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