An alarming rise in COVID cases including that of the Omicron variant has prompted the Delhi government to impose weekend curfew in the national capital. The curfew would last from 10 pm of Friday till 5 am of Monday.
This comes days after the government imposed a night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am in view of rising cases.
Government employees, excluding those employed in essential services, have been asked to work from home during the weekend curfew.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia made the announcement following a meeting with officials of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on new restrictions.
Delhi accounts for 351 cases of the 1,892 Omicron infections reported in the country.
The meeting of DDMA was convened after the capital’s positivity rate hovered above 5 per cent for two consecutive days, calling for a red alert under the Graded Response Action Plan. The current positivity rate in Delhi is 6.46 per cent, highest since May. It logged 4,099 fresh infections and one death on Monday.
Reports quoting experts say the daily cases may double by January 8, and further rise by 20,000 to 25,000 by the middle of this month. This is expected to raise the load on hospitals.
Earlier in the day Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tested positive for COVID.