Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said there is no plan to impose a lockdown as of now in the city, and that there will be no need for it if people wear masks.
He said that on Sunday, the city is likely to report 22,000 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours. He appealed to the public to wear masks and not panic. “Rising COVID-19 cases are a matter of concern but there is no need to panic. Very few people are getting hospitalised. Wearing mask is very important. There will be no lockdown if you continue to wear mask. There is no plan to impose lockdown as of now,” Mr. Kejriwal said in a virtual press conference.
The CM said that he along with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and the Centre are keeping a close eye on the COVID-19 situation.
“Our attempt is to impose minimum restrictions so livelihoods are not affected,” Mr. Kejriwal said. Comparing the current third wave with the second Covid wave in April-May last year, the CM said that on May 7, 2021 there were 20,000 cases reported with 341 deaths but on Saturday Delhi witnessed same number of cases with only seven deaths. He, however, said that there should not be even a single death.
“On May 7 last year nearly 20,000 Covid beds were occupied while till yesterday there were only 1500 hospital beds occupied despite having reported same number of cases.’
"I am telling you this data to show that very less people are requiring to go to hospital in this infection and you do not need to panic. We just have to behave responsibly,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
The CM said that a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will be convened on Monday to further review the situation and discuss efforts to be taken.
“We have overcome the dangerous second wave last year and we will sail through this one too,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
He also appealed to the public not to go out unnecessarily and follow social distancing norms. He also urged people to take vaccine and get themselves protected against the virus. The national capital has been seeing an uptick of daily cases in the last few days, mainly triggered by the Omicron variant of the infection.
According to data by health department, Delhi recorded 20,181 new COVID-19 cases and logged seven deaths on Saturday. The positivity rate rose to 19.60%
To curb the spread of the virus, the DDMA has already imposed a weekend curfew in the city.
