Markaz incident: 60 Malaysians to walk free on `7K penalty
New Delhi: A Delhi court Thursday allowed 60 Malaysians to walk free on payment of fine of `7,000 each after they accepted mild charges, under the plea bargain process, related to various violations including visa norms while attending Nizamuddin Markaz during the Covid-19 lockdown, a lawyer said. Metropolitan magistrate Siddharth Malik passed the order after the Malaysians sought lesser punishment under the plea bargain process.
Union home ministry on Thursday claimed that with a recovery rate of over 72 per cent and doubling rate of nearly 30 days, the Covid-19 situation in Delhi has shown remarkable improvement in recent days because of joint efforts.
As many as 2,187 new cases and 45 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Of the total 1,07,051 cases in Delhi, 21,587 are active and 82,226 patients have recovered. The virusrelated fatalities have gone up to 3,258.
Addressing a press conference, Union home ministry joint secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said that the ministry has been holding regular meetings with the state governments in the Delhi-NCR region for improving the pandemic situation. She said that in these meetings, nationallevel experts also participate and some important decisions have been taken.
These include controlling the cost of Covid treatment in private hospitals, arrangement of additional beds in Delhi increasing the number of tests using rapid antigen technology, careful demarcation of containment zones, contact tracing of all affected persons, effective use of information technology systems and AIIMS consultancy telemedicine facility now available to all hospitals in the country for clinical management.
“Joint efforts have improved the situation in Delhi. Rapid antigen technology is being used at a large scale which has increased testing capability,” she said. According to Ms Srivastava, till July 8, over 6.79 lakh tests have been done which translates into 35,780 tests per million population. Now every day over 20,000 tests are being done but in spite of the increase in tests, active cases are under control.
She pointed out that there were 23,552 active cases in Delhi that has a recovery rate of about 72 per cent and the doubling rate has increased to 29.7 days (or about 30 days).
“Number of hospital beds available for Covid care in Delhi has been increased. On June 1, there were 4,456 hospital beds available. Now 15,096 beds are available. On July 8, there were 10,237 vacant beds, which is about 68 per cent of the availability. The Sardar Patel Covid care centre at Chattarpur here has emerged as a gamechanger as the provision of a good facility for Delhi residents was ensured within 12 days, setting an example for the entire country,” she added.
She also pointed out that Unlock 2.0 directions have been implemented from July 1 and stage-wise permission was being given for activities being allowed outside containment zones. However, the lockdown will be strictly followed in containment zones till July 31. “Now all economic activities are permitted. Complying with national directives has become paramount like masks, social distancing, etc,” she said, adding that the ministry is keeping a close watch on the implementation of the national directives.
◗UNION HOME ministry joint secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said that the ministry has been holding regular meetings with the state governments in the Delhi-NCR region for improving the pandemic situation