On Friday The Delhi Government notified its decisions to allow hotels and Weekly markets to operate and issued SOPs for both, that include mandatory precautions, wearing masks, strict social distancing and availability of hand sanitizers.
It also stated that gaming arcades and play areas for children shall be closed and the hotels must adopt contactless processes like QR code, online forms, digital payments like e-wallets for check-in and check outs.
The government also prescribed air conditioning to be maintained in the range of 24-30 degrees Celsius and relative humidity at 40-70 per cent. Valet staff will use face covers and disinfect key, steering and door of vehicles of the guest, it said.
Weekly markets will be allowed to operate on a trail experimental basis starting Monday for a week, between 4 pm and 10 pm. The markets will be allowed to continue after an assessment on August 31, a senior government official said. Both hotels and weekly markets cannot operate from containment zones.
The government on Friday issued another notification, winding up all Covid-19 health centres set up at banquet halls to augment bed capacity when the number of cases rose sharply in June.
The Delhi government’s SOPs are much in line with the guidelines issued by the central government for hotels and markets across the city.
Earlier, during the meeting with representatives of hotel associations, Kejriwal thanked the hotel industry, saying when coronavirus was at its peak, the hotels supported the government in enhancing the capacity of beds for treatment of patients.
Kejriwal said even though the central government was against the opening of the hotel industry in Delhi out of a fear that the cases might rise again, it was a very important step in reviving the economy of Delhi
“The Central government was against the idea of opening the hotel industry in Delhi, and I would not blame them because the Centre must have thought that the cases might rise again.
“But I explained to them that the hotels are functioning in areas where the cases of corona are rising in the country. Either the Centre should shut the hotels down across the entire country, or open it in the region where the corona is under control,” he said.
The chief minister said there were two challenges — how to end the spread of the virus and reviving the economy of Delhi because businesses have been shut and jobs have been lost due to the pandemic.
“I am happy that since June 1, when the central government had opened the lockdown, and after we went ahead to lift the lockdown in Delhi on their directions, we did not have the need to re-impose the lockdown in the capital,” he said.