As the national Capital logged 1,009 fresh Covid cases on Wednesday, a 60 per cent jump from a day ago, the Delhi Government decided to make face masks mandatory in public places. This was decided by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal at Raj Niwas.
The DDMA also decided not to shut schools but chose to come up with a separate Standard Operating Procedure in consultation with experts. It has also decided to enhance testing, focus on vaccination coverage of the targeted population and ensure strict enforcement of Covid appropriate behaviour.
As per the health department data, Delhi reported 1,009 cases while one person died due to the infection on Wednesday. This was the maximum number of cases recorded in Delhi since February 10 when 1,104 infections were reported. A total of 17,701 tests were conducted a day ago and 5.7 per cent of them came out positive.
The DDMA meeting was attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Chief Secretary, AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria, and Director of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr SK Singh and other senior officers.
Sources said that the DDMA decided that in consultation with experts, standard operating procedures for prevention and management of Covid should be laid down for schools and their strict enforcement by school management should be ensured.
The Government is expected to issue an official order regarding the mandatory use of masks soon even as it chose to keep the schools open and decided against bringing back other restrictions involving regulating markets or social gatherings.
Sources said authorities have been asked to keep a close watch on social gatherings and ramp up testing in the national Capital.
Officials said that enforcing Covid-19 appropriate behaviour was discussed at length at the meeting. Authorities have been directed to once again start compliance drives.
In the meeting, officials of the health department briefed that hospitalisation and fatality trends suggest there is no cause for alarm. It was highlighted that the trends of hospitalisation needed to be closely monitored for the next fortnight as well as conducting genome sequencing of all positive samples put through the RTPCR test. It has also decided to increase the testing and focus on testing people with symptoms, especially those with comorbidities. It was also decided to raise the number of tests being done with the focus on people with symptoms.
During the meeting, emphasis was laid on the vaccination of eligible groups as it will help keep in check the impact of the pandemic. Several participants asserted that there was no need to panic since the number of hospitalisations was low despite a rise in new Covid cases. On Monday, authorities in NCR districts such as Noida, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad made face masks mandatory again in public places.
According to experts, the current rise in positivity rate may be exaggerated since only those developing symptoms are likely to be tested.
According to official figures, there are 9,735 beds for Covid patients in Delhi hospitals and just 80 (0.82 per cent) of them are occupied. On Tuesday, Delhi recorded a nearly 26 per cent jump in fresh Covid-19 cases. The health department said 632 fresh cases were reported on Tuesday and there were no deaths or hospitalizations. The positivity rate was 4.42 per cent.