Delhi Has 125 New Cases, Xmas And New Year's Gatherings Banned: 10 Points

New Delhi: 

As Omicron cases steadily rise in the national capital, the Delhi government today banned all gatherings to celebrate Christmas and New Year. Cultural events were also prohibited on a day Delhi recorded 125 new cases, the highest in six months.

Here's your 10-point cheatsheet to this big story:

1. Delhi officials have yet to define the legal limit for gatherings.
2. All social, political, sports, entertainment, cultural, religious, and festival-related gatherings are banned. Banquet Halls can't function except for meetings, conferences, marriages, and exhibitions, that too with riders.
3. Potential Covid superspreader areas are being identified before the two big year-end celebrations. "All district magistrates shall conduct an intensive survey of the entire area falling under their jurisdiction and identify those pockets, colonies markets, and crowded places which have the potential of becoming superspreaders of Coronavirus and its Omicron variant," said an order of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).
4. Schools and colleges can operate if they strictly comply with SOP. Restaurants and bars will be allowed to open at half the seating capacity. 
5. Cinemas, theatres, and multiplexes can still run with 100% seating but auditoriums and assembly halls can seat only up to 50%. Exhibitions have also been allowed.
6. The Delhi Metro can function at 100% capacity, with up to 30 standing passengers per coach. Buses can also use 100% seating, with standing passengers allowed up to 50% of seating capacity. 
7. Weddings and funerals can have not more than 200 people.  
8. District administration officials and the Delhi police have been directed to tighten the enforcement machinery to ensure that people follow social-distancing norms and wear masks. District officials have been asked to submit daily reports. Market trade associations have also been directed to deny entry to customers without masks.  
9. Delhi has recorded 57 Omicron cases so far, the highest among all states and union territories in India. A total of 213 cases of the highly contagious strain of Covid have been detected in India. 
10. Amid signs of a rise in infections from the new variant, the Centre, in an advisory, has asked the states to activate "war rooms" and bring back curbs, including night curfews to contain it. It also listed a series of prevention and containment measures that included extensive testing and regulation of gatherings