Amid a rise in coronavirus cases, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Tuesday ordered that there will be no public celebrations in the national capital during upcoming festivals such Holi and Navaratri.
Chief Secretary Vijay Dev directed authorities to ensure strict compliance of the order.
"All authorities concerned will ensure that public celebrations and gatherings, congregations during upcoming festivals like Holi, Shab-e-Barat, Navaratri etc shall not be allowed in public places/public grounds/public parks/markets/religious places etc in NCT of Delhi," Dev said in the order.
The government has said that random testing of coronavirus will be held across Delhi's airports, railway and bus stations. The district magistrates and senior police officers of all districts have been ordered to strictly follow the instructions.
Delhi reported 1,101 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the highest in over three months, while four people succumbed to the disease, the health department said.
It is for the first time since December 24 that the city has recorded more than 1,000 cases in a day.
Considering the rise in COVID-19 cases, Mumbai city administration has also announced that Holi celebrations, on March 28 and 29, will not be permitted in both private or public places.
The city recorded 3,512 new COVID-19 cases and eight casualties during the day.
With the Union Health Ministry highlighting that six states have reported a surge in daily new cases and accounted for nearly 81 per cent of the new infections in the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) on Tuesday issued new guidelines asking all states and union territories to enhance proportion of RT-PCR tests, strictly enforce 'test-track-treat' protocol and speed up the pace of vaccination to cover all priority groups.
Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu collectively account for 80.90 per cent of the 40,715cases reported in a span of 24 hours, the Health Ministry said in its daily update of the COVID-19 situation in the country.
