Rs 500 fine for not wearing masks in Gurugram, 3 other Haryana districts

Chandigarh, April 21: Amid the rising Covid-19 cases, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said a fine of Rs 500 would be imposed for not wearing face masks in Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonepat and Jhajjar districts of the state. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the authorities in these four districts had been directed to keep a vigil on Covid-19 situation. The state had earlier lifted the mandate of wearing masks on April 2. Earlier in the day, the Punjab Government advised people to wear face masks at crowded places amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in some of the states. According to the advisory issued by the Department of Home Affairs and Justice, wearing of masks should be ensured in closed environments such as in buses, trains, aircrafts, cinema halls, shopping malls, departmental stores, offices and classrooms. Also read | Surge in Covid-19 cases unlikely to cause fourth wave in India, says expert Earlier, the Haryana government had made the wearing of a face mask mandatory in four districts falling in the National Capital region. In Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, the administration had advised people to wear face masks at crowded places. Delhi has also made it compulsory to wear face masks. It comes amid the rising Covid cases across the nation. With the latest spike of more than 1000 COVID-19 cases in the national capital in a single day, health experts believed that possibilities of new variants of the Omicron are emerging and they are being sequenced. Delhi on Wednesday reported 1,009 fresh cases, the highest since February 10, while the positivity rate is 5.70 per cent. The top expert believes that there are eight variants of Omicron and amongst them, one is dominating which can be held responsible for the surge in cases. Also read | 12 test positive for Covid-19 at IIT Madras  Dr SK Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) said there was a possibility of new variants of Omicron in Delhi while adding that the samples at the ILBS lab have been sequenced. "There is a possibility that new variants are emerging of the Omicron and they are being sequenced," said Dr Sarin. Dr Sarin further said that there are eight variants of Omicron and amongst them, one is dominating. "I think by today at our institute ILBS many samples have been sequenced and I think there are eight variants of which one is now dominating, we will come to know slowly," he added. -PTC News