In a single day, Delhi records 5 deaths, 85 new COVID-19 cases

Govt. to launch massive sanitation drive from today across red, orange zones

Security personnel keeping vigil at one of the hotspot areas in the city on Sunday.

The Capital on Sunday recorded five deaths and 85 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of deaths to 24 and the cumulative cases to 1,154, the government said.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the rise in the number of cases here over the past few days was a worrying trend and the government would be launching a “massive” sanitation drive from April 13 across the city’s red and orange zones. The government has declared containment zones as red zones and the high-risk zones as orange zones.

10 high-tech machines

Mr. Kejriwal said the sanitation drive will be carried out by 10 high-tech Japanese machines. He added that each machine can sanitise 20,000 sqm in one hour. Along with this, 50 small machines will be procured from the Delhi Jal Board.

“We are taking all measures possible to control the crisis and I am sure that our strategy ‘operation shield’will be successful. We implemented this strategy in Dilshad Garden and no new COVID-19 positive cases have been found in that area,” he said, adding that the number of containment zones has grown to 35 — where operation shield will be in place.

“I understand that this is causing a hindrance to the people but I want to assure them that we will do whatever we can to ease out their difficulties. We have to take these measures to ensure all our people are safe and secure and protected from the virus. In the U.S., there have been 2,000 deaths in 24 hours, we do not want to face the same situation,” said Mr. Kejriwal.

Monetary relief

Announcing the details of how the government plans to distribute monetary relief to autorickshaw drivers, gramin and phat-phat sewa and taxi as promised earlier, Mr. Kejriwal said all those who have a valid driver’s license and valid driver’s badge, will start getting relief assistance.

“We are providing them relief assistance of ₹5,000 each to help their families in these distressing times. Drivers will have to submit their applications on the Transport Department’s website transport.gov.in and provide the government with their Aadhaar-linked bank account number and other details,” the Chief Minister said.