Amid COVID-19 rise, weekend curfew imposed in Delhi, non-essential movement curbed

NEW DELHI: JAN. 4 – To check the COVID-19 spread in Delhi, being driven by Omicron, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has decided to impose a weekend curfew in the city. No non-essential movement will be allowed during the weekend curfew.

As per orders, government offices, barring essential services, in the city will have to implement work from home for employees and private offices will operate at 50 percent capacity.

Buses and metro will run at full seating capacity to avoid crowding outside metro stations and at bus stops, Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia announced.

The decision came after a meeting of the DDMA, which was chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal. The issue of imposing more restrictions in Delhi was discussed in the meeting as the city has been witnessing a massive surge in COVID-19 infections from the past few days.

Delhi reported 4,099 new COVID-19 cases while the positivity rate jumped to 6.46 percent, the city government’s health bulletin showed on Monday.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain informed on Monday that Omicron is now the dominant variant of COVID-19 in the capital, as 81% of the samples sent for genome sequencing found evidence of the heavily mutated virus.

Meanwhile, a yellow alert under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) has already been sounded in the city under which many restrictions, including night curfew between 10 pm and 5 am and shutting of educational institutions, gyms and cinemas, among others, have been imposed.

-Hindustan Times