No public events will be permitted in Delhi tonight and tomorrow between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. as the state government declared a night curfew to limit New Year’s celebrations. The centre asked the states to consider a number of restrictions and scale down the New Year festivities after 20 cases of new mutated coronavirus strain-which is suspected to be slightly more infectious-have been identified around the world.
No New Year’s Festivities, congregations and public meetings shall be allowed from 11 p.m. on 31 December to 6 a.m. on 1 January and 11 p.m. on 1 January and 6 a.m. on 2 January, as reported by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority in a statement. Traffic movements, however, would not be limited.
the Home Ministry urged the Member States to ensure tight monitoring of the spread of coronavirus. “The number of Covid 19 active cases is declining steadily in the country for the last three-and-half months. Keeping in view the fresh surge of Covid-19 cases in Europe and Americas, there is still a need for maintaining comprehensive precaution and strict surveillance within our country,” a senior official wrote to the states.
The New Year’s Celebration “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,” the DDMA said in its statement, adding that a “detailed assessment of the situation” in the city has been made in view of the threat posed by the mutant UK strain of the COVID-19 virus.
The United Kingdom, where the latest mutant strain was first identified in September, has seen a huge rise in coronavirus infections over the past few weeks. Earlier this month, Britain said the outbreak was “out of control” leading to a fresh era of global pandemic restrictions.
