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India’s capital Delhi lifted a weekend curfew and allowed restaurants and marketplaces to reopen on Friday, following a sharp drop in new infections of COVID-19, Reuters reported.

Under new orders, however, the city will remain under night time curfew, and schools will be closed, Delhi’s lieutenant governor said. Restaurants, bars and cinemas will be allowed to operate with up to 50% capacity and the number of people at weddings will be restricted to 200.

“In view of the decline in positive cases, it was decided to gradually ease restrictions while ensuring adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour,” Delhi lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, who represents the federal government, said.

The number of new cases in Delhi fell to 4,291 on Jan. 27 from a peak of 28,867 on Jan. 13. More than 85% of COVID beds across the city’s hospitals were unoccupied, government data showed.

“The hospitalisation is far, far lower compared to what we saw in the previous wave,” said Dr. Desh Deepak, a senior physician with state-run Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi.

“Most patients who have died had underlying conditions such as cancer or kidney disease and most were not fully vaccinated.”

Last week, authorities eased some curbs, allowing private offices to be partially staffed but advised people to work from home as much as possible.

The capital has been one of the worst hit in the ongoing third wave led by the highly infectious Omicron variant of the coronavirus and the city government had imposed the curfew on Jan. 4 and ordered schools and restaurants to close.

Late on Thursday, the federal home ministry urged states to remain vigilant and said it was a concern that 407 districts across 34 states and Union Territories were reporting an infective rate of more than 10%, Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla told them in a letter.

India reported 251,209 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 40.62 million, the health ministry said. Deaths increased by 627 and total fatalities were 492,327.

An arrest warrant has been issued against the owner of a construction company in connection to the death of a rhino.

The Chitwan National Park has issued the warrant against Sahadev Khadka, the owner of Sagun JV.

Raju Ghimire has been assigned as an investigation officer to probe the matter, said the information officer at the Park, Ganesh Prasad Tiwari.

A rhino was found dead in a roadside ditch in Chitwan last Sunday.

The Park accused the company of not abiding by the acts and rules to be followed while undertaking construction projects in wildlife corridors which led to the death of the rhino. RSS

The Immigration Office of the Tribhuvan International Airport has barred its staffers from using their mobile phones while on duty at the airport.

The Department of Immigration and the Immigration Office of the Tribhuvan International Office said so by issuing a notice on Friday.

The staffers deputed at the arrival and departure hall have been directed to use landline or official mobile phones during the office hours.

Senior immigration officers will monitor whether the staffers have been following the directive or not.

The staffers can use their mobile phones only by taking permission of the immigration officers in case of emergency, the notice read.

All the employees have to keep their mobile phones in the locker.

Nepal logged 6,827 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 13,791 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 4,807 returned positive. Likewise, 6,078 people underwent antigen tests, of which 2,020 tested positive.

With this, the country's active caseload reached 1,068,932. Similarly, death toll climbed to 11,697.

According to the Ministry, 5,435 infected people recovered from the disease.

There are 89,941 active cases in the country. Among them, 88,084 are in home isolation, 1,857 are in institutionalized isolation.

As many as 256 are in intensive care units and 45 on ventilators.

Meanwhile, the Kathmandu Valley recorded 2,940 new cases.

Of them, Kathmandu reported 2,153 cases and Lalitpur and Bhaktapur recorded 519 and 268 cases respectively.