Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has extended the lockdown by one week in Delhi and indicated that the national capital is moving towards ‘unlock’. Restrictions in Delhi will start to be lifted from 31 May if the graph of the Covid-19 infections continues to fall, said Kejriwal.
“When the second wave came in the whole country in the month of April, it was a very dangerous wave and Delhi was the first state to face it. We were the first to put a lockdown in place. On 20 April we imposed a lockdown and within a month, due to the discipline and hard work of the people of Delhi, the most dangerous wave of corona is seen to be weakening. On the 1st day in the month of April, the infection rate reached 36%, that is, 36 people were getting infected in a test of 100 people. On the 1st day in April, there were 28,000 new cases in 24 hours, but today only 1,649 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours,” CM Kejriwal said.
On Sunday, Delhi saw 1,649 new Covid-19 cases, the lowest since March 30, and 189 deaths due to Covid, while the infection rate dropped to 2.42%. The number of active Covid patients in the city has also come down to 27,610 while the recovery rate has increased to 96.41 percent, the highest since 3 April. According to the Chief Minister, if the situation improves in the same way, unlock will start in Delhi after 31 May.
“The war against corona is still on and more than a thousand new cases are still coming up every day. In the last 24 hours, I have asked a lot of people what to do. The general opinion is that the lockdown must continue for one more week. Because if we open the lockdown now, we might lose whatever we gained during the last one month. The lockdown in Delhi is being extended for a week. The lockdown has been extended until 5:00 pm on 31 May. If the continuation of the cases of infection continues in this way, people will follow discipline in the same way, then from 31 May will begin the process of unlocking. Unlocking immediately will not be okay but will start unlocking slowly from 31 May,” informed Kejriwal.
Appreciating the discipline followed by citizens, Kejriwal further said, “We didn’t know how long this wave would have lasted. But within a month, the people of Delhi cooperated. Delhi has fought the virus like a family… even when there was an oxygen emergency.”
“Now there is an acute vaccine shortage. But I believe we will find a solution to this too,” he added.
The Delhi government is making efforts to arrange Covid vaccines for citizens in the national capital. The Kejriwal government is also in touch with foreign companies to address the shortage of vaccines. Vaccination for people above the age of 18 has been stopped in Delhi, due to which the vaccination centres have also been closed.