Week-long lockdown in Delhi as COVID-19 cases soar

NEW DELHI: Delhi will impose a week-long lockdown from Monday (Apr 19) night, Indian officials said, as the megacity struggles to contain a huge surge in COVID-19 cases with hospitals running out of beds and oxygen supplies low.

The vast nation of 1.3 billion people reported a record high of 273,810 infections on Monday - the fifth consecutive day of more than 200,000 cases.

In Delhi - the worst-hit city in India - 25,500 fresh cases were reported on Sunday, with almost one-third of those tested returning positive coronavirus results.

"Delhi's health system is at a tipping point. The COVID-19 situation is pretty critical," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a televised address.

"If we don't impose a lockdown now, we will be looking at a bigger disaster. From tonight there will be a lockdown until next Monday."

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Kejriwal said businesses would be shut and movement around the northern city of 20 million limited to essential services.

"The lockdown doesn't end the pandemic but just slows it. We will use this week-long lockdown to improve our healthcare," he said, adding that the healthcare system was "under severe strain" and had "reached its limit".

READ: Growing calls for more oxygen, beds as India COVID-19 crisis deepens

Delhi joins around 13 other states across the country that have decided to impose restrictions, curfews or lockdowns in their cities.

These include Maharashtra, home to financial capital Mumbai, the southern state of Tamil Nadu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, where the industrial city of Ahmedabad is also grappling with a shortage of beds.

Criticism has mounted over how Modi's administration has handled India's second wave of the pandemic, with religious festivals and election rallies being attended by thousands.

Social media has been flooded with pleas by desperate families for hospital beds, oxygen supplies and drugs.

Fewer than 100 critical care beds were available in New Delhi, with a population of more than 20 million people, Kejriwal had said on Sunday.

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