Delhi govt frames guidelines for domestic travellers

The graded action plan approved by the Delhi government in anticipation of a third COVID wave has recommended guidelines for people entering the city, including for travellers from states with over five per cent positivity rate and those which have reported mutant strains. For international travellers arriving in Delhi, central government guidelines will be followed, the plan states.

The colour-coded plan was approved during a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) attended by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal among others. The graded action plan has four levels of alerts based on the positivity rate or the number of new cases, oxygen, or bed occupancy.

The first level (L-1) is yellow coded, the second (L-2) is ‘Amber’, the third level (L-3) is ‘Orange’ and the highest level (L-4) is ‘Red’ that denotes over five per cent positivity or the number of new cases reaching 16,000 during a week or 3,000 oxygen-bed occupancy. The plan states that there are three types of situations in which restrictions will be put in place in respect to domestic travel.

The restrictions will come into force when a ‘Red Alert’ (Level 4) has been enforced in Delhi and people are coming by air into the city (including transit passengers) from other highly infected states and Union Territories where the positivity rate is more than five per cent, the plan states.

The second condition of restrictions will involve people coming into Delhi by air, trains, buses, cars, trucks from other highly infected states or Union Territories where the positivity rate is over 10 per cent, it says. The third condition for the restrictions is when people coming to Delhi through different modes of transport from other states or Union Territories where a new mutant of virus is detected, it added.

Such restrictions were imposed on travellers from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh where a mutant of coronavirus was found in May this year. People arriving in Delhi during the implementation of the graded action plan will require to produce a certificate of successful vaccination of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine or a negative RT-PCR report, not more than 72 hours old.

Those failing to do so will require to undergo a 14-day mandatory institutional or paid quarantine stay, stated the action plan document. Officials, including district magistrates, deputy commissioners of police, municipal deputy commissioners among others will ensure strict compliance of COVID-appropriate behaviour, it added.