Delhi, India’s capital, will be under lockdown for one week until next Monday, April 26, the chief minister announced on Monday.
“If we don’t put a lockdown now we may end up in a tragedy,” Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi said.
As part of the lockdown, there will be a curfew on movement, starting 10 p.m. local time this Monday until 5 a.m. on April 26. However, essential products and service providers will be exempt from this rule.
All private offices and establishments, such as shops, malls, gyms, cinema halls and swimming pools, will remain closed, Delhi’s Disaster Management Authority said on Monday.
Delhi faces shortage of medical resources: Kejriwal said the city was facing a significant shortage in beds, oxygen supply and remdesivir injections.
He acknowledged that the situation was grim, adding that one hospital “somehow arranged for oxygen in time” when it nearly ran out at 3 a.m. local time on Sunday morning.
The city administration has been taking a number of steps to ramp up health care infrastructure, including converting sports complexes, hotels and schools into Covid-19 care centers.
On Sunday, Kejriwal said up to 2,000 oxygen beds would be added over the next two days at Yamuna sports complex in Delhi.
Delhi reported 25,462 new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, bringing the total cases in the city to 853,460. At least 12,121 people have also died from the virus, according to the Delhi health department.