Weekend curfew back in Delhi but 100% seating okayed in Metros, buses

New Delhi: The weekend curfew will return to the Capital from this Friday 10 pm onwards as Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday announced that the Delhi Disaster Management Authority had decided to increase restrictions in light of the unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases in the last week even as Health minister Satyendar Jain insisted that this was not a lockdown situation, adding that construction activities would continue for now.

Addressing an online press conference, Sisodia also announced that during weekdays, government employees, barring those engaged in essential services, will be asked to work from home, while private offices will remain open with 50 per cent capacity.

But in what has come as a major relief for commuters and public transport operators, the DDMA has decided to allow the Delhi Metro and buses in the city to run at 100 per cent passenger capacity (no standing allowed) throughout the week fearing that the crowding at Metro stations and bus stops could quickly turn into superspreader events.

Ever since the DDMA imposed Yellow level restrictions, snaking queues outside Metro stations and frustrated commuters fighting with bus conductors (and sometimes vandalising buses) became a common sight.

"There will be curfew on Saturdays and Sundays. People are requested to step out only when it is absolutely necessary. The weekend curfew will begin from Friday evening to Monday morning," Sisodia said.

Significantly, the Capital on Tuesday reported another record surge in new Covid-19 cases — disclosing that 5,481 cases had been detected in 24 hours with a daily positivity rate of 8.37 per cent.

But in a more concerning sign, Delhi also reported three more Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday — the highest single-day deaths from the virus in more than six months.

Moreover, active cases in the city are now almost at 15,000 with officials at Tuesday's DDMA meeting discussing the possibility that the Capital might peak at around 10 lakh to 15 lakh cases — which could exert massive pressure on Delhi's existing healthcare infrastructure, according to experts' opinions discussed at the meeting.

In addition to this, officials at the meeting were told that daily cases in this wave could peak at anywhere between 40,000 to 1 lakh cases per day. Reports of the meeting revealed that officials also discussed ways to change up the city's genome sequencing methods. Officials have reportedly also discussed the idea of sending samples of all hospitalised patients for genome sequencing as opposed to random sampling taking place currently.

In fact, interacting with reporters, Jain confirmed that Delhi had now decided to only genome sequencing samples of hospitalised patients. He said that the situation in the city was "under control" and urged people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour. This came hours after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal disclosed on Twitter that he had tested positive for Covid-19 — days after attending massive poll rallies in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

Asked about the new restrictions, Jain said a weekend curfew (on Saturday and Sunday) was being imposed in view of rising Covid cases, and added "there is no lockdown being imposed in Delhi, and construction activities will also continue as it was before".

The minister added that the media should not "unnecessarily create panic about lockdown". Weekend curfew has been imposed as not much activity happens in that two-day period, and there is no need to panic, the minister added.

Also, Covid-induced restrictions are being imposed with due sensitivity about the situation of labourers, Jain said in response to a question.