Delhi likely to ban dining at restaurants, takeaway allowed

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi, the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) during a meeting on the coronavirus situation today, decided to discontinue restaurant dine-in services, sources told India Today. However, the authority also stated that home delivery will be allowed to continue. 

The development comes after Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal chaired a review meeting over the COVID-19 situation in the national capital to decide on further restrictions to be imposed in the city amid the increase in the cases. 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, Revenue Minister Kailash Gehlot, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, and several health department officials were also present in the meeting. 

DDMA in its last meeting had decided to impose a weekend lockdown in Delhi. It had last week ordered the closure of schools, colleges, cinemas, and gyms with immediate effect and put various restrictions on the functioning of shops and public transport as a yellow alert was sounded under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). Night curfew has also been imposed from 10 pm (earlier 11 pm) to 5 am in the national capital.

However, Kejriwal had on Sunday said the rapid speed at which the coronavirus was spreading in Delhi had been a matter of ''deep concern'', yet added there was no plan to impose lockdown.There would be no lockdown if people wear masks, he had stated.

Delhi had logged 22,751 new COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours, the state health department informed on Sunday. As per a bulletin issued by the health department, the positivity rate for the day stands at 23.53 per cent.

With this, the total cases of the COVID-19 in the city have gone up to 15,49,730 including 60,733 active cases. As many as 10,179 people recovered from the infection during the last 24 hours, taking the total recoveries in the national capital to 14,63,837.

However, the city also reported 17 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours. So far, 25,160 people have succumbed to the infection in Delhi.