Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced that under the Construction Workers Welfare Board Fund, the Delhi government will give ₹5,000 to each construction worker as their livelihood has been affected due the COVID-19 outbreak.
He also said that the number of night shelters in the city has been increased and more food is being distributed to the homeless.
No new case reported
The Chief Minister sought to reassure residents that Delhi did not record any new case of COVID-19 in the last 40 hours but plans needed to be put in place to confront the possible progression of the virus epidemic to Stage 3.
“Today, I want to tell you that in the last 40 hours there has been not a single new COVID-19 positive case in Delhi. Earlier, we had a total of 30 such positive cases and among them, many people are getting better and going home. Till now, five people have survived and gone home. Right now, we have only 23 positive cases in Delhi,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
“But I want to tell you that though this is good news, there is no need to cheer yet because the number of cases can increase any time if we do not put proper restrictions in place or if you do not follow the restrictions. In Italy, in the last 24 hours, more than 600 people have died and in America, in the last 24 hours, more than 150 people have died,” he said.
It was to address this “alarming situation worldwide” that the Delhi government had imposed such tough restrictions like a lockdown and a curfew.
He said, these restrictions may have brought many difficulties in the lives of citizens, but this was something that was required because we want to save the average resident of Delhi, their families and neighbours.
“Yesterday, I requested the residents of Delhi to come together and help each other in this tough time. Today, I am very happy that many people are coming forward and helping each other. In Delhi, nobody should suffer of hunger and it is our collective responsibility to stand beside each other,” he said.
Night shelters
“We have already started distributing food in all the night shelters of Delhi where any person can come and eat. We have witnessed that the number of people is increasing, therefore, we have also decided to increase the number of such night shelters and we will also increase food distribution,” he said.
From Tuesday, he said, the Delhi government had started preparation to build a “foolproof health system” to combat the situation if the city ever got into stage three of this pandemic.
The Chief Minister said a doctors’ team had been constituted which will make all the preparations and submit a report within 24 hours. “We do not want to get into stage three but we have to be fully prepared in terms of medical support,” he said.
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