Delhi govt's e-passes for essential services valid for entire duration of weekend, night curfew

New Delhi: The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Wednesday clarified that the e-passes issued for movement connected to "essential goods and services" or "exempted category" shall be valid during the entire duration of imposition of weekend and night curfew in view of the surge in COVID-19 cases.

"As per the previous orders, movement of the individuals for the activities specified as 'Essential goods and Services' or 'Exempted category' as prescribed in DDMA order have been allowed for movement during night curfew and weekend curfew with the possession of e-pass (in soft or hard copy) only," DDMA said in official order.

"In this context, it is clarified that e-pass possessed by a person on or after January 4 (from the date of issuance of DDMA order) for movement connected to 'Essential goods and services or 'Exempted category', shall be valid during the entire period of imposition of night curfew and weekend curfew," it added. 

Delhi: E-pass possession by a person from essential services/exempted category on or after January 4, 2022, (from the date of issuance of order) for movement shall be valid during the entire period of night curfew as well as weekend curfew in the NCT of Delhi pic.twitter.com/0L40AuceBU

— ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2022

Delhi on Wednesday reported 27,561 fresh Covid cases, the second-highest single-day tally, after 28,395 on April 20, 2021, and 40 Covid deaths - the highest since June 10 when 44 deaths were reported, the Health Department said.

The Covid infection rate has jumped to 26.22 per cent, the highest after May 5 when the infection rate was at 26.36. The active Covid cases have climbed at 87,445, highest since May 8 when the national capital had 87,907.

With a 93.03 per cent Covid recovery rate, the active Covid cases rate in Delhi has gone up to 5.40 per cent while the death rate stands at 1.56 per cent. With 14,957 patients recovering in the last 24 hours, the total number of recoveries has gone to 15,05,031. A total of 56,991 Covid patients are being treated in home isolation at present.

The number of Covid containment zones has risen to 20,878. Meanwhile, a total of 1,05,102 new tests -- 85,349 RT-PCR and 19,753 Rapid Antigen - were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 3,37,48,408.

Out of 1,88,395 vaccines administered in the last 24 hours, 1,04,382 were first doses and 61,434 second doses. The total number of cumulative beneficiaries vaccinated so far stands at 2,79,08,084 according to the health bulletin.