Yellow alert in Delhi amid rising COVID-19 cases; 50% attendance in office, cinemas, gyms closed

Restrictions under Level 1 of the Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP) will be imposed in Delhi as its Covid-19 positivity rate continues to be over 0.5 per cent for the past few days, Delhi Chief Minister on Tuesday announced while declaring a yellow alert in the national capital.

"Delhi is mostly recording mild and asymptomatic Covid-19 cases. That is why there is no reason to panic. However, to ensure that the infection rate does not rise exponentially, a few restrictions under level 1 (yellow alert) is going to be imposed as the positivity rate continues to be more than 0.5 per cent for the past two days," Kejriwal said in a virtual press briefing on Tuesday afternoon.

In light of the spike in Covid-19 cases, the Chief Minister on Tuesday presided over a high-level meeting to take stock of the situation.

Kejriwal also appealed to the people to follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour that includes wearing masks and maintaining social and physical distance.

Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP) - approved by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) in July this year, decides which activities would be allowed under what circumstances in case of a surge in Covid-19 cases. According to the GRAP, there will be four levels of colour-coded alerts namely, yellow, amber, orange and red.

Yellow alert is declared when the infection rate reaches a mark of 0.5 per cent positivity for two consecutive days. Under the Level 1 alert, 1,500 positive cases could be reported in the national capital in a span of one week.

Moreover, a night curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. is imposed with only 50 per cent attendance or capacity allowed in the private offices (from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and other public places like weekly markets, restaurants, bars, Delhi Metro and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses. While gatherings at weddings and funerals are allowed, but only with the attendance of 20 people at most.

Essential shops, salons, bars, construction and manufacturing will function as usual. However, non-essential shops and malls will be operated on the odd-even basis from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Delhi on Monday reported 331 fresh Covid-19 cases, pushing the infection tally to 14,43,683 so far.

This was the highest single-day rise after June 6 this year. With this, Delhi's Covid positivity rate rose to 0.68 per cent.