Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday extended the lockdown in the national capital by a week. He said that the Covid-19 situation in Delhi is not improving, though the acute crisis in the availability of oxygen is likely to be over in a few days. As he announced the extension of the lockdown, Kejriwal also highlighted that Delhi had never had such a high positivity rate of corona infections. He also announced the setting up of a portal where oxygen availability can be monitored every two hours.
Delhi recorded 22,933 fresh Covid-19 cases and 350 related deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the state health bulletin update on Sunday evening. The city now has 94,592 active cases. The total coronavirus cases’ count in the city has gone up to 1,027,715 and the death toll has soared to 14,248.
The positivity rate during the lockdown reached 36-37%, Kejriwal said, adding that this was an unprecedented spike. “We have not seen such a high positivity rate, not in Delhi. Don’t know about other places,” he said. The positivity rate has come down in the last few days, but it can’t be said that the peak is over, the CM said.
The lockdown in the city has now been extended until 5 am on 3 May. “Extending the lockdown for another week is needed. The oxygen situation continues to be under stress and we need at least 700 metric tonnes (MT) of oxygen,” Kejriwal explained.
The Chief Minister also noted that the Central government has been “constantly helping” the Delhi government and that the Centre and Delhi government were “working in tandem to reduce supply bottlenecks”.
Hoping that the oxygen crisis in Delhi would become less intense in the coming days, Kejriwal said that his government was exploring all possible routes to source oxygen. “Have written to all states yesterday. Talks are on with some states,” the CM said.
The Chief Minister, who has also urged the Centre to help, appealed to industrialists as well to “please do whatever you can to support us”. A letter to this effect has been sent to the Tatas, the Birlas, the Ambanis, the Hindujas and the Mahendras, apart from a number of other prominent business families. They have been requested to help in increasing the supply of medical oxygen to the national capital.
Meanwhile, MP from West Delhi, Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma said Delhi was in the grip of a deadly infection and that’s why Delhi CM Kejriwal needed to stop his blame game and focus on people’s problems. He added that the pandemic had thoroughly exposed the so-called preparedness of the state government to deal with the coronavirus and hence if the Kejriwal government permits he was ready “to give Rs 1 crore for an oxygen generation plant at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital”.
East Delhi Member of Parliament, Gautam Gambhir is distributing free medicines and oxygen cylinders to his electorate. Gautam Gambhir said Delhi was his home and that in this hour of crisis he would continue to work for Delhiites relentlessly. He charged the Kejriwal government with making false promises and said he was the only Chief Minister in the country who had spent Rs 600 crore on self publicity rather than on doing anything substantial for the people of Delhi. Gautam Gambhir urged the people to come forward and help each other at this crucial time.