WEEKEND CURFEW IMPOSED IN DELHI
Malls, gyms and spas shut as capital tries to break chain of Covid-19 infections
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday announced sweeping restrictions, including a weekend curfew and the closure of malls, gyms, spas and auditoriums, in a bid to break the chain of Covid infections in the city.
There will be no in-house dining in restaurants and cinema halls will be allowed to operate with only 30 per cent capacity, the chief minister said at an online press conference a day after the city recorded the biggest single-day jump 17,282 new Covid-19 cases.
Kejriwal said essential services and weddings will not be affected during the weekend curfew and passes will be provided to those attending weddings.
The chief minister also said there was no shortage of hospital beds and over 5,000 were still available for Covid patients. Efforts to increase beds on a large scale will also be made, he assured.
What is allowed
Restaurants in the national capital will be allowed to do home deliveries, Kejriwal announced, adding that only one weekly market in a zone will be allowed to open per day and steps will be taken to control crowds in those permitted to function.
Covid-19 cases, he said, are rising every day in Delhi and the restrictions were needed to check the spread of the virus.
The government will also ensure strict enforcement of Covid appropriate behaviour such as wearing masks, Kejriwal said, noting that many people were still not following it.
Meanwhile, India reported more than 200,000 new coronavirus cases yesterday, skyrocketing past 14 million overall as an intensifying outbreak puts a grim weight on its fragile health care system.
In the capital, New Delhi, more than a dozen hotels and wedding banquet halls were ordered to be converted into Covid-19 centers attached to hospitals.
“The surge is alarming,” said SK Sarin, a government health expert in New Delhi.
Trips to railway stations, hospitals and airports will be allowed as essential services, but shopping malls, gymnasiums, spas and auditoriums must close, he said in a statement. He also said 5,000 hospital beds are available and more capacity is being added, so there was no bed shortage in the capital.
The bustle of India’s biggest financial capital, Mumbai, ebbed under lockdown-like curbs to curb the spread of the virus. The action imposed by worst-hit Maharashtra state on Wednesday closed most industries, businesses and public places and limits the movement of people for 15 days, but didn’t stop train and air services.
Mass exodus of migrants
In recent days, migrant workers have swarmed overcrowded trains leaving Mumbai, an exodus among panic-stricken day labourers.
In addition to the 200,739 new cases of infection, the health ministry also reported 1,038 fatalities from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking deaths to 173,123 since the pandemic started last year.
India’s total cases are second behind the US and its deaths are fourth behind the US, Brazil and Mexico.
The actual numbers may be much higher with limited testing among India’s nearly 1.4 billion people.
Shahid Jamil, a virologist, said the recent local and state elections with massive political rallies and a major Hindu festival with hundreds of thousands of devotees bathing in the Ganges river in the northern city of Haridwar were super-spreader events.
The health ministry said the total vaccinations crossed 114 million with more than three million doses administered on Wednesday. Cremation and burial grounds in the worst-hit area also were finding it difficult to cope with the increasing number of bodies arriving for last rites, Indian media reports said.
Imran Shaikh, a resident of Pune, said hospital authorities asked him to arrange for an oxygen gas cylinder for his relative undergoing Covid-19 treatment.
Dozens of other cities and towns have imposed night curfews as they battled an infection rate that almost doubled within 10 days.