Report: Masks not compulsory in Delhi for those driving alone in cars

The Delhi government on Friday withdrew its earlier order that makes it compulsory to wear a mask even while driving alone. The decision was taken by the national capital's disaster management authority during a meeting to review Covid curbs, sources reported quoting. Earlier, the Delhi High Court termed Delhi government's order to mandatorily wear masks in a car even while driving alone as absurd.

"It is a Delhi government order, why don't you withdraw it. It is absurd actually. You are sitting in your own car and you must wear the mask?" the bench said. During the hearing, senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, said the high court's single judge order of April 7, 2021, which had refused to interfere with the Delhi government's decision to impose challans for not wearing a mask while driving a private car alone, was "very unfortunate".

The observation by the bench came when the counsel representing the Delhi government shared an incident of a man being challaned for not wearing a mask while sitting in his car along with his mother and sipping coffee with windows up.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Friday decided to reopen schools in a phased manner. Classes 9th-12th will reopen from February 7. It said institutions of higher education will also open subject to SoPs & strict adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour. Teachers who aren't vaccinated will not be permitted, it said.

The directive also said that gyms can reopen and duration of night curfew has also been reduced by one hour (between 11 pm & 5 am), according to a report.

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.