Delhi orders restaurants to remain closed

March 19, 2020 10:43 pm | Updated 10:51 pm IST - New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressing the media on Coronavirus at Delhi Sachivalaya, in New Delhi on March 19, 2020.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressing the media on Coronavirus at Delhi Sachivalaya, in New Delhi on March 19, 2020.

Dine-in arrangements in restaurants across the national capital will be closed till March 31, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Thursday, but these restrictions would not apply to home delivery and take-away orders.

Speaking after a meeting with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to assess measures to combat COVID-19 epidemic, Mr Kejriwal said all educational institutions have been directed to close till March 31 for both teaching and non-teaching staff.

Non-essential public services will be disallowed from Friday.

“The Delhi government is taking all relevant measures to contain the spread of coronavirus. We have had 10 cases in Delhi until now, with the unfortunate demise of one of the patients. Two patients have recovered and one patient has left for Singapore. We currently have six COVID-19 patients, most of them are recovering now,” he said.

The Delhi government, he stated, had an existing capacity of 768 beds to be installed in quarantine facilities until now of which only 57 beds that are currently occupied. Of the 550 isolation beds in Delhi government hospitals for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, 40 beds have been occupied with suspected coronavirus cases.

There are, he said, 95 beds available in the central government hospitals, out of which 67 beds have been occupied by suspected COVID-19 patients.

“We have also started stamping all the people who have been advised to self-quarantine themselves, owing to many of the patients who have been escaping the quarantine premises,” the CM said.

"We are disinfecting buses, ISBTs, and metros daily. We were also disinfecting private public service vehicles, like autos, taxis, and cabs daily in two shifts,” he added.

Mr. Kejriwal appealed to the people to comprehend the intensity of the situation and avoid stepping out of their homes.

“Stay at home as much as you can and work from home. I want to appeal to the private sector institutions to provide work from home permits to their employees… Senior citizens need to be the most cautious of all,” he said.

This, he said, even as the number of people banned to gather for any event was modified from 50 to 20.

“We had recently announced that no social, political, cultural, family, sports and seminars gathering comprising of more than 50 people will be allowed in the city. We have brought down the number of people to 20," he noted.

Meanwhile, Raj Niwas, in a statement, said Mr. Baijal has appealed all to follow government directives, practice social distancing and avoid unnecessary travel.

“The Private Sector be advised to work from home wherever possible, promote contactless digital transactions, stoppage of breath analyser tests by Traffic Police, waiver of tax for hotel rooms for quarantined persons,” Raj Niwas said the L-G had directed.

A fine on spitting in public places and its strict enforcement in addition to the provision of mobile vans with essential commodities of daily use with essential medical items at different residential areas may, he directed. be explored which will decrease the need of the people to visit the market.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.