Delhi Covid Surge: 50 Guests Allowed At Weddings, MHA Announces Survey And More Tests

A day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government was planning to reinstate curbs amid rising Covid-19 cases, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal approved the proposal to limit the number of guests at weddings. 

The number of people allowed at weddings has now been cut to 50 from 200 as the national capital recorded 6,396 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday.

While the Delhi government has rejected rumours of another lockdown, health minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said that “local restrictions” are likely at some places, according to Hindustan Times . 

Kejriwal had said on Tuesday that his government has written to the Centre for permission to impose some curbs, including lockdowns of some markets. He had said that “if social distancing and mask-wearing is not being followed in any bazaar and there’s a possibility of those areas becoming a hotspot, we should be allowed to close them down for a few days.”

Since the middle of May, the capital has gradually opened markets and public transport shut during the early phase of the pandemic.

Experts had told HuffPost India last week that while pollution and winter can be blamed for the number of cases, there are other reasons too — an increase in commercial activities and slackening of guard on the part of the people.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs tweeted that DRDO will add 250 ICU beds to its already existing 250 ICU beds in the coming days at its Covid hospital near Delhi airport. 

In a series of tweets, the ministry announced a slew of measures that will be taken to contain the increasing number of Covid cases in Delhi. 

Indian Railways will make available train coaches with 800 beds at Shakur Basti railway station, the ministry said and added that doctors and para-medics from CAPFs will man these coaches. 

MHA said that planning for a house-to-house survey in Delhi is in an advanced stage and it is expected to begin by the weekend and be completed by 25 November. 

The number of tests will also be increased. MHA said that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Delhi government are working together to enhance RT-PCR testing capacity to 60,000 tests by the end of November. Testing capacity was enhanced by 10,000 tests/day on Tuesday.

For ease in testing, ICMR will help Delhi government in deploying 10 mobile testing labs for Covid with a total capacity of 20,000 tests in phased manner beginning next week, MHA said.