Public gatherings in Delhi have been restricted between 11 pm, and 6 am for toning down the New Year’s Eve and New Year celebrations in the capital on the two respective days. The state government has announced the curfew and urged other states to consider taking necessary actions to limit the New Year celebrations after discovering 20 cases of new mutant Coronavirus strain, believed to be remarkably more infectious, across India.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority stated that no “celebratory events, congregations and gatherings at public places shall be permitted from 11 pm of December 31 to 6 am of January 1 and 11 pm of January 1 and 6 am of January 2” would be allowed. However, traffic movement won’t be hampered for the same.
The Home Ministry has encouraged the other states in a letter on Monday to ensure strict vigil is implemented to check the spread of Coronavirus. The letter states that although the number of Coronavirus cases has been declining at a steady pace within the country during the last three-and-a-half months, it is essential to maintain comprehensive precaution and strict surveillance sight the fresh surge of cases in Europe and Americas.
The DDMA said that the celebrations might “pose a considerable threat of the spread of the virus and may cause a setback to the appreciable gains made in the suppression of chain of transmission of COVID-19 cases in Delhi” and due to the threat posed by the mutant UK strain of COVID-19 virus, a detained assessment would be conducted within Delhi.
The new mutant strain was first detected in the UK in September, and is now undergoing a massive surge since the last few weeks. Britain had termed this strain to be “out of control” at the beginning of the month, which led toa new tide of restrictions imposed worldwide to contain the pandemic. However, according to experts, there is no substantial evidence to believe that the new strain is more deadly and cannot be prevented by vaccines.
Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, assured that the city is prepared to fight the new strain as he mentioned that at a time, around 8500 corona cases were being reported at Delhi every day, higher than any other place in the world. But the Delhi people were able to control it. They would do the same again if the situation worsened.
Eight out of total 20 mutant Coronavirus strain cases have been recorded at a Delhi lab. The national capital has so far logged over 6.24 lakh infections, while the tally has surged to 1.02 crore infections across India. But there has been a significant drop in the number of infections recorded daily in the last two-three months.
