Delhi: The ban on Kovid has been extended till December 31 amid Omicron fears. details here

The restrictions include a ban on social and cultural gatherings and a cap on bars and restaurants, which will operate with 50% seating capacity.

In an order, the DDMA said the activities currently permitted and prohibited in the national capital will continue till the midnight (12.00 pm) of December 31 and January 1.

Under a phased reopening with better coronavirus scenario in Delhi, DDMA has allowed most activities. However, political, social, cultural, religious and other such gatherings are still not allowed.

Apart from the limit of 50% of the seating capacity in bars and restaurants, the DDMA order also continued to bar banquet halls from holding meetings and events other than conferences, exhibitions and marriages.

In the pre-Covid period, hotels, bars, restaurants and banquet halls were packed with fun during Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Restaurants were disappointed by the decision and said they were hoping to make up for losses during the pandemic by holding events on New Year’s Eve and Christmas.

Rahul Singh, owner of Beer Cafe, said, “Multiplexes, cinema halls, buses – everywhere 100 per cent capacity is allowed. So what have we done for it? It is disappointing. We were hoping to come out of a loss. The industry has suffered during the pandemic but now it is finding it difficult.”

He said it was understandable that the Omicron version of the coronavirus was at risk, but questioned whether quarantining restaurants and bars was the only solution to allay the fear of spreading the infection.

Joy Singh, co-partner of Rasta and Yeti, said, “We have made some bookings for Christmas and New Year and we have to refund some customers money and it will be a loss for us. Of course, regular customers will have preference in bookings. be given.”

However, he added that looking at the bigger picture, this is a slightly better solution.

“If by taking some precautions we can stop the spread of the virus and prevent a situation that may call for a complete lockdown, all the better,” he said.

Meanwhile, Delhi saw a slight increase in its daily number of COVID-19 cases as 57 new cases were reported during the last 24 hours.

The national capital recorded 45 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.

According to the bulletin provided by the state government, the positivity rate for the day is 0.10 per cent, as against 0.09 per cent yesterday. A total of 58,328 samples were tested during the last 24 hours as against 48,120 samples were tested on the previous day.

During the last 24 hours, 36 people have recovered from the infection, taking the total number of recoveries in the state to 14,16,322.

However, no death was reported for the seventh consecutive day during the last 24 hours. The death toll due to the deadly virus currently stands at 25,100.

Delhi currently has 428 active COVID-19 cases, of which 192 are in home isolation.