Covid surge: 'Yellow alert' in Delhi, Punjab tells unjabbed to stay home

Mukesh Ranjan &

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Chandigarh, Dec 28

Amid a fresh surge in Covid cases, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has declared a “yellow alert” and ordered the closure of schools, colleges, cinemas and gyms in the National Capital even as the Punjab Government has asked eligible persons who haven’t taken both vaccine doses to remain indoors.

“Those who are eligible for vaccination but haven’t taken both doses should stay inside their houses. They mustn’t visit public places, including markets and shrines, attend any function or use public transport,” read an order issued by Punjab Principal Secretary (Home) Anurag Verma. The fresh curbs will come into force from January 15.

Considering the situation in the aftermath of Omicron spread, those not fully vaccinated needed to take more precautions, said Verma. Those not due for second dose, however, would be exempted from the fresh curbs, he said. All government offices in Chandigarh have also decided to allow only fully vaccinated people or those not yet due for second dose.

The same guidelines are to be followed by banks, hotels, bars, restaurants, shopping complexes, cinemas and gyms. In Delhi, the DDMA directions came after CM Arvind Kejriwal issued a “yellow alert” (declared when case positivity remains above 0.5 per cent for two consecutive days) as part of the graded response action plan (GRAP) in view of the rising cases.

The fresh restrictions mean that shops of non-essential goods and services and malls will open with an odd-even formula. Besides, the timing of the night curfew, imposed from Monday, too has been extended and will now begin at 10 pm instead of 11 pm.

Marriages and funeral-related gatherings will only be allowed with an attendance of 20 persons. However, public gatherings, including political or religious, have now been prohibited.

The entire public transport, including the Delhi Metro, will run at 50 per cent capacity, while autos and cabs can now only carry two passengers. The alert was sounded as Delhi reported 496

fresh cases on Tuesday (one death), which is the highest over the last six months.

Further, restaurants and bars will now only be allowed to operate with 50% capacity.

“We are imposing restrictions to avoid this virus from entering everyone’s homes. A few months ago, we had formulated GRAP to take appropriate action and impose restrictions depending on the level of spread of the virus. This will ensure a scientific and systematic approach to impose a certain amount of restrictions at a certain percentage of Covid prevalence,” Kejriwal said.

“Under the GRAP, we had decided that in case the positivity rate remains over 0.5% for two days consistently, the yellow alert or Level 1 will be imposed. Since the positivity rate has consistently been above 0.5% for the past 2-3 days, we have decided to impose Level 1 starting today,” he added.

6,358 fresh cases

TOTAL DEATHS 4,80,290

ACTIVE CASES 75,456

293 deaths in 24 hours

Stricter curbs in Capital

Schools, colleges shut | Cap on weddings

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