Delhi Covid schools guidelines expected today amid fresh surge

Delhi is seeing an upward trend in Covid cases yet again after the city recorded a drop in the daily tally over the last few weeks. On Thursday, the national capital registered 325 new patients, the highest one-day rise since March 3.

The spike comes after the city had dropped the rule for mandatory masks recently. Worries over spread of the virus in schools in Delhi and nearby cities have also emerged.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is set to take up the matter on Friday. The disaster body - DDMA - will meet next week (April 20) to decide on the mask rule.

Manish Sisodia on Thursday said Covid guidelines for schools will be issued on Friday. The statement came as some schools reported infection among students and teachers.

 Across India, an average of 1,000 Covid cases have been recorded since March-end. But a surge in Delhi and Mumbai have caught the attention. This also comes as some European nations - France, Germany and Italy - and China are battling a fresh spike.

A New XE variant - of which government officials have recorded two patients from Mumbai and Gujarat - is also on the WHO radar.

The hospitalisations in the city have been low and the new spike should not be a matter of worry, the Delhi government has said.

"Covid cases have slightly increased but there is no rise in hospitalization, so we need not worry. There is no need to panic but stay alert. We have to learn to live with Covid. We are constantly monitoring the situation," Sisodia, who is also Delhi's Education Minister, told reporters.

Online classes were discontinued in Delhi schools from April 1 after a gap of more than two years as in-person classes fully resumed.

The chief minister has also urged people to not worry. During the earlier waves, he had stressed that the city needed to "learn to live with the virus".

The latest positivity rate in the national capital stood at 2.39 per cent as compared to 2.49 per cent the day before when Delhi recorded 299 patients.