Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Amid rising cases in the Capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that the government doesn’t “want to impose a lockdown”, but urged people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour.
“There will be no lockdown in the city if you wear masks. We don’t want to impose a lockdown; that is not our intention… We want to impose as few restrictions as possible so that people’s livelihoods are not impacted,” he said, addressing a video conference.
The Capital reported 22,751 cases, 17 deaths and a positivity rate of 23.53% on Sunday, up from 20,181 cases, 7 deaths and 19.6% positivity rate on Saturday.
A health worker collects swab samples of passengers to conduct COVID-19 test, amid concern over rise in Omicron virus variant cases, at the Anand Vihar railway station near New Delhi, Friday, Dec. 31, 2021. (PTI Photo/Ravi Choudhary) “There is no need to panic. I am saying this after studying data properly. It was on May 7 last year that we had a similar number of cases. Then, 341 people had died in a day and around 20,000 hospital beds were occupied. Yesterday (Saturday), there were seven deaths. In this wave, the number of deaths and the rate of hospitalisation are low. I haven’t told you this so that you stop wearing masks and become irresponsible. I am telling you this so that you don’t panic. Wearing masks is extremely important,” he said.
It was in the third week of April, as the second wave was peaking, that the number of daily cases breached the 22,000 mark for the first time. The positivity rate was around 24%, 167 deaths were reported, and over 12,000 hospital beds were occupied. The total number of active cases then was above 60,000; it was 60,733 on Sunday.
Kejriwal, who had tested positive earlier, said Sunday that he had recovered from Covid. He also urged all those who haven’t been vaccinated to get their shots as soon as possible. “Those who haven’t got vaccinated, please do so. It is not like the vaccine will protect you completely from the disease, but it will save you from severe symptoms. Please get vaccinated,” he said.
Delhi imposed restrictions under the yellow alert last month, as cases started to spike. All educational institutions are closed and shops in markets and malls have to follow the odd-even rule. A weekend curfew is in place, where only emergency and essential services are permitted.
A Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) meeting is scheduled with healthcare experts on Monday, where the status of hospital bed occupancy, cases and restrictions are set to be discussed.
Of the estimated 1.5 crore adults in Delhi eligible for the Covid vaccine, about 1.15 crore have got both doses. Since January 3, 2.42 lakh children in the age group of 15-18 years have got their first dose.
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