Omicron And Night Curfews: Delhi To Impose Curbs

Omicron And Night curfew As the number of COVID-19 cases and Omicron variant, the new coronavirus strain, rises in metropolitan cities and states in India, both the state and centre have alerted the public of the dangers of the mass spreading. Considering the rise in cases and the festive season that has led to large gatherings, the governments have decided to impose a night curfew, state-wise.

New Delhi is not far behind. The National Capital territory was worst hit by the second wave of coronavirus which claimed the lives of hundreds of people in the city. Keeping in mind the coronavirus cases and the new omicron cases adding on to the existing crisis and hospitals load, the Delhi government has decided to impose the night curfew from December 27, today.

Starting today, the time between 11 PM and 5 AM will be the duration of the night curfew. The UT registered a spike in COVID-19 cases and currently, the total number of cases stands at 290, which is the highest in the last six months. According to the Delhi government's health bulletin, one fatality was recorded while the positivity rate jumped to 0.5 percent.

Suggested Reading: Omicron Scare: UP Announces Night Curfew And Social Gathering Restrictions

As per Sunday's record of the COVID-19 cases in Delhi, the total number stands at 14,43,352 cases and the overall death stands at 25,105. Out of the total number of cases, 1,103 are active cases, of which 583 patients are under home isolation.

The night curfew was reportedly imposed under the four-stage Graded Response Action Plan. If the positivity rate settles at 0.5 percent. then the yellow alert will reportedly come into force and will thereby lead to more restrictions. The medical director Dr Suresh Kumar of Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi, in an interview with The New Indian Express said, "There are 68 patients of Omicron admitted currently. Today, 20 coronavirus patients arrived at the facility from the airport. There are 31 patients whose genome sequencing reports are awaited."

Night Curfew In Other States

The Variant of Concern as called by the World Health Organisation, Omicron has forced states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan to opt for night curfews. While states like Karnataka has imposed restrictions on public gatherings between December 30 and January 2. The mass gatherings have been banned and the restaurants are back to operating at 50 percent occupancy.

The latest state to implement the curfew, Uttar Pradesh has also an assembly election approaching in 2022. The Allahabad High Court, considering the catastrophic effect of the Bengal Assembly Election and panchayat polls in UP this year, has asked Election Commission to consider postponing the polls. "Jaan haine toh jaahan hai," said the court.

The total number of Omicron cases in India has crossed 500 on December 26, yesterday. As per the fresh tallies by the health ministry, Madhya Pradesh reported nine cases, Maharashtra reported 31 and Mumbai which is the state capital alone reported 27 cases out of the total, Kerala reported 19, and Haryana reported seven. These numbers are just from 24 hours observation, it contributed to raising the total in each of the states and this India's tally.

Is Night Curfew Meaningless?

The social media is split again and this time the worry is Omicron. Many Twitter users have been discussing whether night curfews are effective at all as the number of people crowding on the street during the day is more.

Barkha Dutt, a senior journalist, tweeted, "The night curfews are an insult to our intelligence. Please stop," adding, "Am all for vaccine passports instead and boosters and masks when needed. And then living."

Nidhi Razdan, a senior journalist, also tweeted, "Doctors on my timeline- does night curfew really help in fighting covid?"

Dr Ambrish Mithal of Max Healthcare replied to the tweet and stated, "I guess the logic might be that it will lead to less partying. Other than that, nothing I can think of.."

While Dr Joyeeta, a Physician, replied, "Night curfews are pointless as long as election rallies are being held, and people are partying during the day or markets are crowded during the day or markets are crowded during the rest of the day."