Taking Precautions : Amidst Rise Of Omicron Variant Cases, Yellow Alert Sounded In Delhi Under Graded Response Action Plan, Announces CM Arvind Kejriwal

Picture : Twitter / ANI

As covid cases rise in the national capital, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced that a yellow alert has been sounded in Delhi under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) and restrictions will be imposed accordingly.

He said Covid cases are mild and there is no increase in the consumption of oxygen or the use of ventilators despite the rise in numbers.

“We are 10 times more prepared than earlier to deal with the rise in Covid cases,” the chief minister said.

The ‘yellow’ alert restrictions stipulate that shops and establishments of non-essential goods and services and malls will open based on odd-even formula from 10 am to 8 pm.

The timing of night curfew imposed from Monday night has also been extended by an hour and it will now begin at 10 pm.

The night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am will remain in force till further orders, stated the order issued by the DDMA.

Marriages and funerals will be allowed attendance of 20 persons while all other types of gathering related to social, political, cultural, religious and festival events will be prohibited.

Also, the Delhi Metro will run at 50 per cent of its seating capacity while auto-rickshaws and cabs can ferry up to two passengers.

Busses too will ply at 50 per cent of capacity with exempted category passengers, says the GRAP.

After a high-level meeting to review the pandemic situation in the national capital, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said earlier in the day that a decision has been taken to issue ‘yellow’ alert in view of fast rising cases of infections.

The DDMA order stated that all the restrictions as per ‘yellow’ alert will be enforced with immediate effect.

The GRAP approved by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) prescribes sounding of ‘yellow’ alert if positivity rate remains above 0.5 per cent for two consecutive days.

The total number of cases of new Omicron variant of COVID-19 recorded in the national capital has mounted to 165, according to data shared by the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday.

Amid the Omicron scare, Delhi recorded 331 fresh coronavirus cases, the highest single-day rise since June 9 and one death, on Monday, while the positivity rate mounted to 0.68 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

India has logged 653 cases of the Omicron variant across 21 states and UTs so far, out of which 186 people have recovered or migrated, showed the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of 167 such cases followed by Delhi at 165, Kerala 57, Telangana 55, Gujarat 49 and Rajasthan 46.