NEW DELHI, Feb 3: The schools and other educational institutions and gyms in Delhi will be open from Monday, it was decided at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) held on Friday to review the covid situation in the national Capital.

However, the Classes from Nursery to VIII will resume only on February 14. The Classes from IX to XII can run from February 7. The online classes will also run simultaneously. Only fully vaccinated teachers can take the in-person classes in the schools.

The duration of the night curfew is relaxed by an hour. Now it will be from 11 pm to 5 am instead of 10 pm to 5 am. The cinemas, restaurants and bars, which were allowed to function at 50% capacity last week on, have now been allowed full operations. Offices can work with 100 per cent attendance. Those driving cars alone need not wear mask. Exhibitions are allowed from Monday, so also swimming pools will also be open, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters.

Most of the covid restrictions are lifted with the latest relaxations.

The DDMA had on Thursday last week allowed all private and Government offices, restaurants, bars and cinemas function with 50 per cent capacity. The odd-even scheme under which shops open on alternate days, by rotation, was also removed. But a decision on schools reopening was then kept in abeyance.

The latest decisions come in the background of the ebbing of the pandemic in the national Capital. The daily number of covid cases has declined to under 3,000 in the last 24 hours and the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) has also come down below 5 per cent. The fall in the cases has been consistent over a week. Delhi on Thursday recorded 2,668 cases with a positivity rate of 4.3 per cent.The decisions have been taken on the advice of experts. Moreover, a large number of students in the 15-18 age group have also been vaccinated.

Across the country too there has been a steady fall in the incidence of covid infections. The daily covid cases in the two weeks from January 21 to February 3 have fallen by 50 per cent, 3,47,254 to 1,72,433. And the TPR too fell from 17.94 per cent to 10.99 per cent.

The DDMA meeting is chaired by Lt Governor Anil Baijal and attended by members Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is also its vice-chairman, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot and officials, and special invitees Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul, ICMR Director-General Prof Balram Bhargava, NCDC director Dr director Dr SK Singh and NDMA member Krishna Vatsa

The Arvind Kejriwal Government had earlier reportedly proposed reopening of the schools from Monday as the TPR had gone down below 5 per cent in the past few days and the incidence of covid was also abating.

The Delhi Government had argued that the continued closure of schools was doing more harm and that online teaching was not a replacement for offline classes even though the schools were closed for the students' safety. Experts had warned that the prolonged closure of schools was affecting the mental well-being of the children.

Since March 2020 when the pandemic intensified, all schools have remained closed, partly also due to a pre-winter air pollution in Delhi.