Shivam Patel

Data from six monitoring stations of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee showed concentration of PM 2.5 and PM 10 spiked suddenly after 9pm, when firecrackers were set off.

The nine water and nine main sewage treatment plants of the DJB, the agency that’s responsible for supplying potable water to the capital, have been working 24x7 to ensure that it supplies over 900 million gallons per day (MGD) of water and recycles around 500 MGD of waste water daily.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’s regional forecasting centre in Delhi, said the total rainfall recorded in the city in March was 109.6mm — an all-time high for the month since counting began in 1901.

A division of the department had ordered 125 litres of disinfectants, on an “immediate basis”, for five of its laboratories at the water and sewage treatment plants on March 14.

Comprising of about a hundred families involved in waste picking, the JJ cluster was not connected to the DJB's water network and the department's water tankers had stopped reaching there since the past few months.

The slum cluster is not connected to the water network of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and has not been receiving water tankers for around four months.

Doctors and paramedics involved in the screening of passengers for symptoms of coronavirus were stretched to their capacity as the “unexpected” rush resulted in travellers waiting for over eight hours to be sent for quarantine.

Guidelines from the Union Health Ministry state that passengers from high-risk countries affected by COVID-19, including China, Italy, France and Germany, are to be quarantined for 14 days.

There are many unskilled labourers who have lost work in the national capital region over the past week.

After arriving at the airport, travellers would be brought to counters set up by the Airport Health Organisation (APHO) at a pier in Terminal 3 for initial thermal screening. Passengers showing symptoms of COVID-19 would be isolated here and sent to designated hospitals for further treatment.

On Monday, several passengers said the Delhi government’s facilities were not suitable. Some of those taken to Dwarka and Narela claimed the facilities were unhygienic.

In what were described as scenes of confusion, 405 travellers from two Air India flights arrived at the airport around 9 am and faced several hours of delay in being transferred to the quarantine facilities.

“They arrived at the facility by 12.30 pm and had nasal swabs taken, which would be tested for coronavirus. We would get the reports by Monday evening. We are following all protocols and are giving them the best possible care,” an ITBP spokesperson.

A network of 65 laboratories of the Department of Health Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research (DHR-ICMR) will now test 20 samples each week — 10 of influenza-like illnesses and 10 of severe acute respiratory infection — for Covid-19.

This is the second batch of evacuees to have left the facility after being quarantined. It had 36 foreign nationals from countries including Bangladesh and Maldives, and the remaining were Indian nationals.

As the news of the government’s announcement began coming in, officials at multiplexes, including Inox, Carnival and Cineplex, said customers who have made advance bookings would get a full refund.

Singh was one of the 59 men and women accused in the transistor bomb blasts of May 10, 1985, that happened in Delhi and adjoining areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The explosions killed 49 and injured 127 people in the capital alone.

Locals claimed several complaints had been made to the local MLA and municipal corporation to get the drain covered but nothing was done about it. Badli MLA Ajesh Yadav could not be reached for a comment Saturday.

According to Aftab’s family, he had come to Delhi a week ago to work and finance his education.