The Delhi Government on Sunday decided that there will be no relaxation in the lifting of the lockdown from April 20 as the number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases continue to rise in the national Capital. Announcing that all the eleven districts of Delhi have been declared as hotspot as many localities have been sealed and declared as containment zones, Delhi Chief Minister Arvin d Kejriwal said State Government will review its decision after a week after taking consultations from experts.
Interestingly, Delhi accounts for two per cent of Indian population while coronacases account for 12 per cent of the total cases in the country.
Delhi has 77 ( number may inc.) containment zones that have Bremen sealed to control the spread of the disease. Citing a health report of 186 corona positive cases, Kejriwal said that it is worrying that none of 186 positive cases recorded on Saturday had symptoms.
Kejriwal also said the national Capital paid the price of the Markaz event where thousands of Tablighi Jamaat followers.
Importantly, Delhi has become an epicentre having second-highest number of cases after Maharashtra with 1,893 people testing positive.
Following the mandate of the Central Government, Kejriwal said, “As per the instructions of the Central Government, some restrictions of the lockdown can be lifted from Monday, especially in the areas that have not been severely impacted by Covid-19. We have to deliberate on which restrictions that have been imposed, should be relaxed.” “The Central Government has also said restrictions should not be relaxed in the hotspot areas or containment zones. There are containment zones in all the 11 districts in Delhi.”
It is pertinent to mention that the Delhi Government has done its assessment in consultation with various experts and departments.
“In the last few days, there has been a considerable rise in the number of COVID-19 positive cases in Delhi. We have also increased our testing capacity and the cases are also rising.” “ Yesterday, we obtained reports on 736 tests done, out of which 186 or approximately 25 per cent cases were tested positive. All the 186 COVID-19 positive cases that were reported on Saturday were asymptomatic, they didn’t know they had coronavirus. This is more dangerous and worrying because these people tested were living their normal routine, and they must have infected more and more people in the meantime,” he added.
Surprisingly, Delhi’s food distribution centres are also under Corona grip. Interacting digitally, Kejriwal highlighted that while interacting with one of the patients, it was found out that the person had been distributing food in a designated food center of the Delhi Government.
“I have instructed that rapid testing of all the staff and the people who have visited the food center be done. This means that COVID-19 has been spreading in Delhi. The number of containment zones is also rising, which has now reached 77 containment zones.”
“We did random testing in the containment zones, and it was observed that no cases were reported in the areas where containment protocol was strictly followed, but a surge in cases was observed where the protocol was not followed and people defied the norms of social distancing and lockdown.”
Giving example of Jahangir Puri where 26 people of joint family were tested COVID+ because they did not observe the containment protocol, Kejriwal urged people in containment zone not to interact others even within localities.
There are 1893 COVID-19 cases in Delhi, out of which 26 are in ICU, and 6 are on ventilators.
Around 46 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19.
Kejriwal said, “If the lockdown had not been imposed, we would be on par with other nations where the numbers are quite high. What if 3000 people would require the ICUs and 2500 people would require ventilators.”
“We have observed a similar pattern in Italy, Spain and the US, where the ICUs, ventilators and the entire healthcare system were not sufficient in treating all the patients. Our country would be
suffering from a similar fate if the lockdown had not been imposed,” he added.
“We have to deliberate on whether or not any relaxation should be made because as much as we realize that people are in distress and are facing difficulties due to the lockdown, we also have to see that the situation does not worsen in terms of rising COVID-19 positive cases. We have to be patient,”
“We have decided to not relax any restrictions in Delhi for now. We will have discussions with experts and the concerned departments again after a week and will review our decision,” he added.