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Delhi

Delhi govt sends fresh proposal to L-G over reopening hotels & gyms

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Thursday sent its third proposal to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, seeking his permission to allow the reopening of hotels, gyms and weekly markets in the Capital, through Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot, who implored the ex-facto Chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to reconsider his decision in light of the improving COVID-19 situation in the city.

While the city on Thursday recorded 1,299 fresh cases, slightly higher than in the past few days, it also dramatically increased testing compared to numbers from the last few days. Delhi had conducted a total of 20,436 tests, of which 5,737 were RT-PCR tests and 14,699 were rapid antigen tests. The Delhi government said the city added 15 deaths to the toll here, taking total COVID-19 fatalities to 4,059.

Meanwhile, the revenue minister urged the L-G to reconsider his veto on the Delhi government's decision to allow hotels, gyms and weekly markets to reopen, saying that the Centre's own guidelines empower the local government to decide unlock rules in accordance with MHA guidelines.

Gahlot said, "Hotels contribute to 8 percent of the State's GDP and employment. Weekly bazaars provide employment to 5 lakh poor families. After having successfully brought COVID situation under control, it is a challenge to bring the economy back on track."

"Also, it has been a week now when our recommendation was rejected by Hon'ble LG. We may now urge Hon'ble LG to reconsider his decision. MHA has also permitted opening of Yoga centres and Gyms in its latest guidelines. These activities should be permitted in Delhi. However, the SOPs issued by the Government of India should be followed," Gahlot stated in the proposal, adding that "such contradictory conduct of the Central Government is not comprehensible".

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has also written to Home Minister Amit Shah asking him to intervene in the matter.

Moreover, as for the monthly Serological survey underway in the city, officials said a total of 10,263 samples had been collected until Wednesday night, which is close to the target of 15,000 samples.

The Delhi government on Thursday said total cases in the city had reached 1,41,531 and that with 1,008 fresh recoveries reported in the last 24 hours, a total of 1,27,124 COVID-19 patients had recovered so far. Significantly, active cases on Thursday went up again for the second consecutive day, after it had dipped below the 10,000-mark earlier this week.

Currently, Delhi has 10,348 active cases, with 5,244 of them recovering under home isolation. More than 10,500 COVID-19 beds are also vacant in the city, the official health bulletin showed.

While the number of containment zones stood at 466 on Thursday, the total number of tests in the Capital has now reached 11,20318.

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