New Delhi: The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) is likely to meet on Friday to discuss further relaxations in COVID-19 curbs, including reopening of schools, in view of the declining cases in the national capital. The number of daily cases in Delhi has been on the decline after touching the record high of 28,867 on January 13. The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the ongoing wave of the pandemic.
It took just 10 days for daily cases to drop below the 10,000-mark. The DDMA is scheduled to meet on February 4 to review the COVID-19 situation in the national capital and take a call on reopening schools and other relaxations, a senior Delhi government official said on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi BJP demanded reopening of gyms and spas, alleging that the AAP government was discriminating against them as restrictions like weekend curfew have been lifted, and restaurants and bars have been allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity. In a statement, Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to immediately send a proposal in this regard to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, who is also the DDMA chairman.
In the last DDMA meeting, the Delhi government had recommended reopening of schools saying it was necessary to prevent further damage to the social and economic well-being of children as the COVID-19 situation in the capital had improved. Asserting that online education can never replace classroom studies, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said the government had closed schools when it was not safe for children, but "excessive caution" was harming them.
A delegation of parents led by Chandrakant Lahariya, an epidemiologist and public policy specialist, had earlier met Sisodia and submitted a memorandum signed by over 1,600 parents demanding that schools be reopened. Schools in the city were briefly reopened before being closed again on December 28 last year in view of the third wave of COVID-19 driven by the Omicron variant.
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