The DDMA orders private offices in Delhi to close and work from home as covid cases rise sharply

NEW DELHI, Jan 11: In view of the rising cases of covid in Delhi, all private offices will be closed, barring those in exempted categories, the Government ordered on Tuesday. The employees will work from home (WFH), the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said in its latest guidelines. It had closed all restaurants and bars on Monday but allowed home deliveries and take-aways of food. Fifty per cent of the Delhi Government employees are already working from home.

At a DDMA meeting on January 4 with Lt Governor Anil Baijal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia it was decided to enforce a weekend curfew and a Work From Home on 50% Government staff. However, Metro trains and public transport buses were allowed to run with full capacity. They were operating with 50% capacity since December 29 when the Yellow Alert came into force. A night curfew was clamped by the Goverrnment much earlier.

On Tuesday there were 21,259 covid cases and 23 deaths in Delhi and the TPR was 25.65% while there were 19,166 cases and 17 deaths on Monday. In the third week of December the TPR was less than 0.5% and there were no daily deaths.

On December 29 there were 923 cases reported which was an 86% jump from the previous day and the highest since May 30. The TPR had climbed to 1.29 % but no mortality was reported. On December 28 there were 496 cases reported and the TPR was 0.89% with one fatality. On December 26 the TPR was 0.55%. There were no daily mortalities. While in the current month so far, till January 10, there have been 70 covid casualties, the total casualties reported in the previous five months were 54.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the LNJP hospital on Tuesday to take stock of the covid arrangements. He said of the 136 covid patients at the hospital, 130 had come for treatments for other problems but were incidentally found positive for covid on testing. He asserted that the third wave of the pandemic is "very mild" as compared to the deadly wave of last April. "Though the number of cases has been rising, the number of hospitalisations has remained very low so far. The number of deaths is also less. But we are prepared for any eventuality," he said. The hospitalisation rate currently is only one-fifth of what it was during the terrible month of April when the most ferocious second wave of the covid pandemic was on.

Health Minister Satyendar Jain has told NDTV on Tuesday that Delhi is likely to hit a peak of covid cases "definitely this week" and the third wave may start ebbing after that. However, "it's possible we may enforce another curfew, just to remind people not to lower their guard," he said.

Despite a tally of 20,000 daily cases, hospital occupancy is only 2,000 beds, while 12,000 beds for covid patients are unoccupied. In the last wave, when the city was seeing 20,000 cases a day, 12,000-13,000 beds were occupied, Jain said. "So bed occupancy is six times less now. It seems severity is less. Only 65 of the 2,000 admitted to hospitals are in ICUs (intensive care units)," the Health Minister said.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Tuesday wrote to the Lt Governor urging him to reconsider the work-from-home order for the private sector. The owners of restaurants also sought a review of the order suspending dine-in facilities. They said many businesses may have to shut as takeaway services alone cannot cover expenses like rent and staff salaries.

In neighbouring Haryana, OPD services at Government hospitals were affected as doctors went on mass leave and threatened strike from January 14 to press for their demands relating to service matters. All 22 districts of the State were affected. They want a specialist cadre for doctors and end to the direct recruitment of senior medical officers (SMOs).