Omicron: After Bengaluru, Delhi bans Christmas, New Year gatherings

A day after Karnataka refused permission to New Year celebrations owing to Omicron threat, the Delhi government decided it won’t allow mass gatherings during Christmas and New Year.

People won’t be allowed to congregate for social, cultural, religious, political or sporting event throughout national capital territory (NCT) of Delhi. Meanwhile, the Kejriwal government has permitted bars and restaurants to operate with 50% occupancy.

Meanwhile, India’s Omicron case count climbed to 213 on Wednesday (December 22). Maharashtra has the most cases (65), followed by 57 patients in Delhi. The national capital’s COVID case tally is rising though without any death reported in the last 24 hours. The national capital reported 125 new cases in the last 24 hours – the highest in six months. The test positivity rate is still around 0.2% with recovery rate of 98.21%. Delhi’s COVID death tally so far is 25,102, with a COVID death rate of 1.74%.

Delhi has authorised district magistrates and District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to take decisions to control the disease. They will be required to keep in an eye on the area allotted to them and identify crowded places which have the potential of becoming superspreaders of coronavirus and its Omicron variant.

Also read: Karnataka says no to New Year bash, but Christmas celebrations as usual

Besides Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala have reinforced COVID restrictions in view of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.

The Centre has stated that the Omicron variant is at least thrice more transmissible than Delta. It also asked states and union territories to “activate” war rooms, keep analyzing even small trends and surges and keep taking strict and prompt containment action at district and local levels.

A letter written by the Centre to all states says that a test positivity of 10 per cent or more in the last one week or bed occupancy of 40 per cent or more on oxygen supported or ICU beds should be main elements of the framework to be used by states and union territories to facilitate decision making at the district level.