India, Nov. 12 -- As Delhi's air quality entered "severe" category, chief minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday announced a set of city-level mitigation measures to protect public health, including the temporary shift of all schools up to Class 5 to hybrid mode, after the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) invoked stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap).

To be sure, Delhi's 24-hour rolling average air quality index (AQI) was 428 at 4pm, according to daily national bulletin by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the highest this year.

Gupta said that the decision to move to hybrid learning was aimed at shielding young children from prolonged exposure to toxic air. "This decision has been taken with the health and ...