Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today announced a weekend curfew as the national capital sees a record surge in coronavirus infections.
“Cases are constantly on the rise and we have taken a few decisions. We have decided that there will be weekend curfew in Delhi. We hope that weekend curfew will break the chain,” Kejriwal said on Thursday.
Auditoriums, malls, gyms and spas will be shut down and cinema theatres will be allowed with a third of the capacity.
Eating out will be closed and only home deliveries will be allowed. Weekend markets will be allowed but with restrictions.
Delhi recorded the biggest single-day jump in its coronavirus tally on Wednesday with 17,282 new cases, while over 100 people died.
“However, let me make it clear, that essential services and those – whose marriage dates and venues are fixed – will be issued special passes,” the CM said.
Kejriwal made the announcement after meeting with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and top officials earlier on Thursday.
Other restrictions:
Restaurants to remain shut; no dining in, only takeaways
Gyms, spas, malls and auditoriums will be shut
Cinemas will operate at 30% capacity
Only weekly markets allowed with special arrangements
India, meanwhile, recorded its biggest-ever single-day spike on Thursday for the second day in a row with 2,00,739 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours and 1,038 deaths. There were 93,528 discharges, the Union Health Ministry said.
The total number of cases in India now stands at 1,40,74,564, total recoveries are at 1,24,29,564, active cases at 14,71,877 and death toll at 1,73,123. On Wednesday, India saw 184,372 fresh cases with its total COVID-19 tally shooting up to 13,873,825 cases.
This is the second-highest number of cases a country has ever registered in one day. The only country to have recorded a higher number of cases in a single day was the US, which had registered 3.09 lakh cases on January 8 of this year.