Weekend, night curfews to remain in Delhi; offices can reopen

Private offices have been allowed to reopen with 50% on-site staff from next week but the weekend and night curfews will continue in the Capital, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority announced on Friday, notwithstanding a request from the city’s elected government that sought these curbs to be rolled back on the back of a sustained fall in the number of cases.

The city recorded 10,756 new cases on Friday, comprising 18.04% positive results of tests carried out in the last 24 hours. These numbers are a major improvement from the peak of 28,867 cases and 30.64% test positivity rate in this wave logged on January 13 and 14 respectively.

“The grave danger of the coronavirus has subsided in Delhi… Experts had warned that Delhi can record one lakh cases daily during this wave, but that danger has been averted. We will take a call on lifting of more restrictions within three-four days,” Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain said, after announcing that the administration wrote to DDMA seeking relaxation in curbs.

The government asked the agency, which is led by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal and is the authority on Covid-related rules – to withdraw the weekend curfew, lift the odd-even restriction on standalone shops, and allow private offices to call back 50% of their staff.

In an order issued later in the day, DDMA accepted only the last suggestion. “It is clarified that the night curfew from 10pm to 5am everyday and the weekend curfew from 10pm of Friday till 5am of subsequent Monday shall remain unchanged…” the order said.

Private offices, it added, shall be allowed to function with up to 50% attendance with immediate effect although officials will be advised to work-from-home as much as possible.

Maharashtra announced earlier this week that it will allow schools to reopen, a decision also taken by Mumbai, from next week. Karnataka on Friday lifted its weekend curfew, while letting one for the night remain, after observing low hospitalisation rates.

In Delhi, orders to close private offices came on January 11, a day after the city shut the last of non-essential activities, such as dining out. Earlier, on December 28, the city ordered schools and gyms to close as cases began to rise.

In that time, the hospital infrastructure has been strengthened and crucial scientific assumptions has been confirmed: the Omicron variant that is driving the surge is less likely to lead to serious disease and people who have taken vaccine doses are protected.

“Of the 43 fatalities recorded on Thursday, coronavirus was the primary cause in only three,” Jain said on Friday. The Capital has reported 396 deaths due to the infection in January so far. According to officials, most of these patients had serious comorbidities and Covid was not the primary cause of death.

A person from Baijal’s office said the decision to continue the restrictions was taken because the positivity rate was still over 21% as on Thursday. “The Delhi government’s proposal of private offices working with up to 50% staff has been agreed with by the LG. With regards to weekend curfew and opening of markets, it has been suggested that the status quo should be maintained since positivity rate is still hovering above 21% and number of daily positive cases are more than 12,000. Once the situation improves, a review would be done by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority along with member experts and a final decision will be taken,” said this person, asking not to be named.

But it has been clear for a few days that Delhi’s numbers are southbound. For instance, Friday’s health bulletin, which came hours after the DDMA order, showed that positive cases have fallen to 10,756 and the positivity rate to 18.04%. And almost 83% of the beds in dedicated Covid hospitals are unoccupied.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, in a press conference on Friday, said the curbs must now be eased. “When Covid cases were on the rise in the city, it was important to impose various restrictions for the safety of people. But now the peak of Covid cases has passed and the cases are declining considerably. On January 12, the Capital reported the highest number of cases this season, which was nearly 28,000. About 8-10 days back, the positivity rate was around 31%, but now it has come down to 17%. Seeing the current graph of cases, we are currently in the situation to relax restrictions,” Sisodia said.

“Now that the cases are coming down, it would be wrong to restrict people from moving out to earn for their survival,” he added, speaking before the order was issued.

After the order, officials of the government said it was unfortunate that the LG rejected the strong demand of traders and business community. “LG has rejected the proposal of elected government despite the fact that Covid cases are reducing at a very fast pace. When all markets of Gurugram and Noida are open, why should the business community of Delhi be made to suffer by BJP’s Central government,” Delhi government said in a statement.

Traders said they are planning to launch a protest against the LG if the odd-even restrictions are not lifted within three days. Chamber of Trader and Industry chairman Brijesh Goyal said the elected government has the right to act in the interest of the people of Delhi. “Delhi’s traders are deeply disappointed by the LG’s decision. We request DDMA chairman LG Anil Baijal to lift the odd-even restrictions from the markets and end weekend curfew keeping in mind the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of traders and lakhs of employees and laborers,” said Goyal.

Confederation of All India Traders general secretary Praveen Khandelwal wrote a letter to the LG seeking reconsideration of the DDMA’s decision. “The traders of Delhi are facing acute financial crisis for last two years. Dine-in facilities in restaurants should be allowed with 50% seating capacity and non-vaccinated persons should not be allowed to enter any restaurants,” said Khandelwal.

Community medicine experts backed the traders demands. Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung hospital, said: “Now the third wave is receding in Delhi and most of the part of India, further imposing night curfew and restriction of commercial activities will not benefit in decreasing cases but may further delay the downfall of curve. With less movement of individuals, the infection spread will slow down. Due to restrictions the movements of individuals will be lower and thus the dip will also be slow. Omicron is known to be mild with high transmissibility therefore economic losses due to it are not justified.”

The Aam Aadmi Party, which is in government, too hit out at the LG separately. “LG is a representative of the BJP led central government and it is clear that the BJP wants to destroy every single business running in Delhi… The wages of the poor people working at these shops have also been deducted due to the decline in sales, hence causing them to struggle even more. Meanwhile the BJP in Delhi is running a false campaign, plotting a conspiracy in which they are sending messages to Delhi’s market associations that CM Arvind Kejriwal is disrupting Delhi’s businesses,” said party spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj.

Leader of opposition in Delhi assembly, BJP’s Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was trying to mislead the public over the issue. Bidhuri said he has been demanding for the past few days that the DDMA should ease the restrictions and give relief to the traders. “I have written a letter to the LG today (Friday) requesting him to reconsider his decision to reconsider the decision to continue the weekend curfew in Delhi and odd-even restrictions for markets. The proposal of the Delhi government should be approved with the condition that it will ensure strict implementation of the corona rules in the markets,” Bidhuri told HT.