NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said there were no plans to impose a lockdown in the capital and Delhi government was not shutting down any market right now.
“I had sent a proposal to the LG yesterday for decreasing the number of wedding guests in Delhi from 200 to 50, which has been approved. Second, due to Diwali, we saw that social distancing norms were not followed in many markets in Delhi. So, we sent a proposal to the LG for the central government to allow Delhi government to impose local lockdowns in the market places, which are potential Covid hotspots,” Kejriwal told reporters after visiting Delhi government’s GTB Hospital to review the preparedness in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases.
“I was listening to some news channels yesterday, which mentioned that there would be a mini-lockdown in Delhi, which is not the case,” Kejriwal reiterated.
“We will observe the situation in the coming days and will assess according to that. Saving the economy and the livelihood of the people is our topmost priority right now. Unless very necessary, we will not take any step, but we have only written to the central government for now,” he said.
November has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases, which have crossed the one lakh mark. It recorded the highest number of cases in a month by surpassing the number of total cases recorded in the month of October. The total number of deaths this month is second highest after the toll of 2,269 recorded in June.
Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia also said Delhi government had no plan to impose a lockdown as lockdown was not a solution to the pandemic. He said that the government might press some restrictions in market areas for some days to prevent the spread of Covid-19 if the need arose.
Sisodia told reporters that the Covid-19 pandemic could be tackled through proper medical arrangements, which the government was doing effectively, instead of imposing a lockdown.
Earlier in the day, health minister Satyendar Jain also said that there would be no lockdown as learning from the previous lockdown, it has been realised that there is no logic of repeating the exercise. He said there are just plans of local restrictions if required. Delhi is carrying out the highest number of tests compared with any other state and the numbers will only go up in the coming days, he added.