Wearing masks in private cars not mandatory in Delhi: DDMA

As the Covid-19 pandemic recedes in the capital, people will no longer be required to wear masks in private cars from Monday, the health department announced on Saturday. Additionally, people caught not wearing a mask in public will be asked to pay a fine of ₹500 instead of ₹2,000, authorities said.

Other Covid-19 curbs such as night curfew, restrictions on standing passengers in public transport, and 50% seating cap in restaurants and bars will be removed from Monday, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority said in an order on Saturday. All schools have been asked to resume physical classes from April

The authority has decided that although face coverings will remain mandatory in public places, people travelling together in private four-wheelers will not be asked to mandatorily wear masks, the Delhi health department said in its order.

The easing came as Delhi’s pandemic situation improved with just 440 cases reported on Saturday. The infection positivity rate has dropped to 0.83%.

The relaxation, however, does not extend to taxis and mass transit. “Even if a family travels together in a commercial four-wheeler, they will need to wear masks,” a Delhi government official clarified, requesting anonymity.

Exempting people from wearing masks in private vehicles was a welcome decision and the government should have done this a long time ago, an health expert said.

“Usually family members or people known to one another travel in private vehicles. They are usually already exposed to one another at home and other places where they meet,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital. “Asking such people to wear masks when they get into a private car did not serve any purpose in checking the spread of coronavirus.”

No separate data has been maintained by district authorities of people fined for not wearing masks inside cars, a district magistrate said, but declined to be named. Data of the number of fines issued since the government made masks mandatory since June 13, 2020,and imposed a penalty on violations was not immediately available.

People driving alone in cars have already been exempted from wearing masks since February 5 after the Delhi high court said it was an “absurd” rule.

Sudha Sinha, president of the Federation of CGHS Dwarka Limited (a group of several RWAs in Dwarka) who was stopped by civil defence volunteers near the Delhi airport on February 4 when she removed her mask to drink water inside her private car and fined, said the exemption from the mask mandate was welcome and long overdue.

“It was strange that while family members can live together in a home without masks, they were required to wear masks even though they travelled together in a private car,” said Sinha.