After convening an all-party meeting with political leaders to discuss the Covid-19 situation, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that the penalty for not wearing masks in public places will be increased from Rs500 to Rs2,000 in light of the severe spike in Covid-19 cases in the capital. Kejriwal also said that the government has issued directions to all private hospitals to reserve 80% of their ICU beds and 60% of non-ICU beds for Covid-19 patients and postpone dates of non-critical surgeries. Similar directions were issued in May and June as well, when the city had witnessed the first sharp rise in Covid-19 cases but later some of them were relaxed when the cases went down.
