Covid surge: Delhi imposes fresh curbs, shuts restaurants and bars

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Monday announced to close the restaurants and bars and to allow only 'take away' facility in Delhi as coronavirus cases continued to surge in the national capital. "In view of the increase in positive cases it was decided to close the restaurants and bars and to allow 'take away' facility only. It was also decided to allow operation of only one weekly market per day per zone," he said. "Officers were advised to strictly ensure wearing of masks and adherence to social distancing by citizens in market places and public areas to break the chain of transmission," Anil Baijal further added. Currently, the dine-in facility in restaurants was allowed to operate at 50% of their seating capacity. The bars were also permitted to open with 50% seating capacity. The meeting also discussed scaling down full seating capacity in Metro trains and city buses from current to 50%. Earlier during the day, Anil Baijal chaired a Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) meeting on the Covid situation in the national capital. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, Revenue Minister Kailash Gehlot, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev and other health department officials were present in the meeting. DDMA has ruled out a possibility of lockdown but hinted at stricter restrictions. Delhi LG said the health department was advised to make adequate arrangements for additional manpower in hospitals and to scale up the vaccination efforts including to those in population between 15-18 years.