Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday assured the people that there was no plan to impose a lockdown in the city despite the daily spike in fresh cases of Covid-19.
Addressing a digital press conference, Kejriwal said there was no need to get panicky as the situation was under control. But people must behave in accordance with the Covid-19 protocol and wear a face mask while going out of their houses, and those who have not got vaccinated so far must get the vaccine shots.
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He said, “There is no need for panic, but behave like a responsible citizen. We don’t want to impose a lockdown. Our idea is to impose as limited curbs as possible so that the common man is not put in a difficult situation.”
Comparing the situation that prevailed during April-May and what was being experienced now, he pointed out, “During the previous wave of the pandemic in April-May, 20,000 fresh cases of the virus were recorded on May 7, 2021, but as many as 341 patients lost their lives. The hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients at that time numbered 20,000. But when the city identified over 20,000 cases on January 8, there were only seven fatalities and 1500 beds were occupied. The analysis of the situation based on the available data shows there is no need for panic, though ideally, no one should die because of the virus infection.”
Kejriwal said he had been closely monitoring the situation and had been in touch with the officials concerned like the Chief Secretary despite remaining under home isolation after he tested Covid-19-positive. He had also been regularly holding discussions on the phone with the Health Minister in this regard.
He informed that the Delhi Disaster Management Authority would hold a meeting on Monday morning when there would be a discussion on the situation with experts and senior officials. More restrictions may be imposed if this was found to be necessary to check the spread of the coronavirus infection.
The Chief Minister said the latest on the Convid-19 front in the city was that around 22,000 new cases of the virus infection had been identified during the past 24 hours and this would be mentioned in the daily health bulletin when it would be released in the evening.
The city reported 20,181 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Saturday when the positivity rate was 19.6 per cent. The test positivity rate is the highest since May 9 last year, when it was 21.67 per cent.
Kejriwal also declared that he had recovered from the Covid-19 infection after getting medication under the home isolation system. He announced this by taking to Twitter too.
The city had been under a weekend curfew which began at 10 pm on Friday. The weekend curfew will continue till 5 am on Monday.
