Centre’s guidelines in line with proposal sent by Delhi government: CM

Kejriwal to announce detailed plan on relaxation of restrictions in city today

A scene at one of the hotspot areas in Jahangirpuri in New Delhi on Sunday.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the Centre’s guidelines for the fourth phase of the lockdown are largely in line with the proposal sent by the Delhi government. The proposal, he said, was based on suggestions of lakhs of Delhiites.

“We have used the lockdown period to prepare our healthcare system if COVID-19 cases increase but it is now time to relax the restrictions to some extent,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

He added that the government will prepare the detailed plan for Delhi based on the Centre’s guidelines and announce them on May 18.

Mr. Kejriwal welcomed the easing of lockdown restrictions on a day when the Capital reported 422 new COVID-19 cases taking the total number of cases to 9,755, according to a health bulletin released by the Delhi government.

No new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

The total number of deaths stands at 148, according to reports from the Death Audit Committee. The bulletin also stated that 276 people have recovered and there are currently 5,405 active cases.

Death records

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said all hospitals here have submitted a summary of their death records and the Death Audit Committee was in the process of compiling the reports — which would be done in two-three days.

The committee has been revising the death toll over the past week after reports came in that the number of COVID-19 deaths were being under-reported.

Mr. Jain added that at present, the doubling rate of COVID-19 stands at 11 days and while the number of Containment Zones was not increasing, there are many doctors, nurses, police and BSF jawans testing positive.

The government also issued an order for all healthcare facilities operating in Delhi to follow guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for rationale use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in accordance with the risk involved.

Type of PPE kits

The guideline has listed the type of PPE kits to be used by healthcare workers according to the activity they perform, the risk associated with the task and which department of the hospital they work at.