NEW DELHI, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Delhi state government on Wednesday announced that it would distribute as many as five million masks among school students from Friday, in a bid to save them from prevailing high levels of air pollution.
Announcing the decision, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that a kit with two pieces of "N95" masks, considered as one of the good quality masks for tackling smog, will be given to students during the first week of the next month.
Reiterating that the main reason behind the rise in air pollution in Delhi and surrounding areas was the "stubble burning" in neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, Kejriwal urged the governments of these states to take steps to prevent stubble burning.
Air pollution levels continue to remain in severe category in the Indian capital. On Wednesday afternoon the Delhi Air Quality Index (AQI) was "severe" with a count of 423, one of the highest in this season, according to the air quality monitor "System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting (SAFAR)".
The PM 2.5 count was in the severe category at 273 while the PM 10 count was at 421 in the very poor category.
As per the set standards, an AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor", and 401-500 "severe". Above 500 is "severe-plus emergency" category. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern.
