Delhi LG overrules CM’s Covid orders as Kejriwal goes into self-quarantine

Within 24 hours, Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal has overruled two key decisions taken by the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government to handle the Covid-19 situation in the state. Turning down Kejriwal’s order to reserve state government’s hospitals only for local residents, Baijal said that ‘Right to Health’ is an integral part of ‘Right to Life” under Article 21 of the Constitution and treatment should not be denied to any patient even if he or she is not a resident of Delhi. Baijal, who is also the president of Department of Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), while turning down another order of Delhi government to not test asymptomatic patients said that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) strategy for Covid-19 testing should be strictly implemented in Delhi without any deviation.  

However, Kejriwal responded sharply these decisions. In a tweet, the Delhi CM said that these orders would create more challenges and problems for people of Delhi. “It’s a big challenge for us to ensure treatment for all those Covid-19 patients coming from different parts of the country. I think it’s God’s will that we take care of the entire country. We will try to provide treatment to everybody,” he tweeted.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, too, hit out at the BJP and said that the BJP state governments were busy in PPE and ventilator scams and the Delhi government after due deliberation was trying to manage this disaster honestly but BJP could not tolerate it. That is why pressure has been put on the LG to do this dirty politics, he said.

Meanwhile, the BJP applauded the LG’s decision. BJP MP Gautam Gambhir said that “excellent step” was taken by LG that overruled the Delhi government’s “idiotic order” of not treating patients from other states.

Amid these developments, a shocking news report came when Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal went under isolation after showing Covid-19 symptoms. He complained of sore throat and fever. All his meetings were cancelled on Monday and he will be tested on Tuesday. The rapid spread of coronavirus in the national capital has concerned the authorities. The State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) will conduct a meeting on Tuesday. This meeting will be chaired by the LG.

Earlier, Kejriwal was to attend this meeting but now due to poor health, the Deputy CM of Delhi will go to this meeting. “A meeting of State Disaster Management Authority will be held today on Covid-19 situation and to discuss whether there is community spread. If participant experts say there is community spread in Delhi, our strategy will change. I’ll participate in meeting,” said Sisodia.

This meeting of SDMA is very important because the cases of corona are constantly increasing in Delhi. The total number of cases in Delhi now stands at 29,943 and will cross the 30,000 mark soon. In the last 24 hours, 1,007 new cases were reported, 358 people recovered and 17 people died. Forty-five cases of death due to corona were also recorded on Monday. With these developments, currently there are 17,712 active cases in Delhi while 11,357 have recovered so far. According to government figures, the recovery rate in Delhi is 38.01%, the death rate is 2.80%.