'Last DDMA meeting on June 25, focus now on reviving economy'

New Delhi: With the Capital's COVID-19 situation showing signs of improvement from the last week of June, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority has not held a meeting over the pandemic since June 25, senior officials here said, adding that since the Delhi government had now said people have to live with COVID-19, the "DDMA has become relaxed".

At the last meeting of the State Disaster Management Authority, officials had reversed an order from the Lieutenant-Governor's office mandating a compulsory five-day institutional quarantine period for everyone who tested positive for the virus.

"Since we have to live with COVID-19, we have to focus on other works of the government too like reviving the city's economy. The SDMA has become relaxed because COVID is an ongoing process and it is here to stay for a while and cases have also started reducing," said a senior official aware of developments.

"The focus has shifted from SDMA meetings and officials are now working on other projects," said another official.

However, after the Central government stepped in to help authorities with managing the Coronavirus situation in the middle of June, there were multiple back-to-back meetings of the DDMA with either Delhi government orders being overturned by the L-G as the ex-officio Chairperson of the DDMA or with the Delhi government vehemently opposing directions from the L-G' office.

On June 20, a marathon DDMA meeting over the reduction of private COVID-19 treatment costs and the mandatory five-day institutional quarantine for all COVID-19 patients had ended in a deadlock, with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia saying no consensus could be reached. But after the L-G's order on institutional quarantine came into effect on June 22, followed by chaos among patients in Delhi, a meeting of the DDMA on June 25 had reversed this order.

Officials have said that no meeting of the State Disaster Management Authority has been convened since then.