As the third wave of COVID continue to wreak havoc in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said that the government has no plans to impose lockdown as yet.
Delhi recorded 20,181 new COVID-19 cases and logged seven deaths on Saturday. The positivity rate rose to 19.60 percent.
Kejriwal, who himself had tested positive for COVID-19 a day after holding a rally in Dehradun on 3 January, and isolated himself at home, made the remarks at a virtual press conference.
"I am back in your service after recovering from Corona," Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi on Sunday morning.
करोना से ठीक होकर मैं वापिस आपकी सेवा में हाज़िर हूँ।
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 9, 2022
"Rising COVID-19 cases are a matter of concern but there is no need to panic. Very few people are getting hospitalised. Wearing mask is very important. There will be no lockdown if you continue to wear mask. There is no plan to impose lockdown as of now," Kejriwal said. Our attempt is to impose minimum restrictions so livelihoods are not affected, Kejriwal added.
He said that on Sunday the city is likely to report 22,000 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours and appealed to the public to wear masks and not panic.
Comparing the current third wave with the second wave in April-May last year, the chief minister said that on May 7, 2021 there were 20,000 cases reported with 341 deaths but on Saturday Delhi witnessed same number of cases with only seven deaths. He, however, said that there should not be even a single death.
On 7 May nearly 20,000 COVID beds were occupied while till yesterday there were only 1,500 hospital beds occupied despite having reported same number of cases. "I am telling you this data to show that very less people are requiring to go to hospital in this infection and you do not need to panic. We just have to behave responsibly, Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal said he along with Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal and the Centre are keeping a close eye on the COVID-19 situation. The chief minister said that a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will be convened on Monday to further review the situation and discuss efforts to be taken.
The agenda of the meeting includes an assessment of the COVID-19 situation and preparation in the wake of rising Omicron cases, a discussion on the implementation of GRAP (Level 4 Red), and a review of the vaccination programme.
"Discussion on implementation of Graded Response Action Plan (Level 4 Red Alert) as positivity of COVID has crossed 15.34 percent," stated the notice listing agenda of the meeting.
The Red Alert is the topmost level of restrictions, including a total curfew, closure of all non-essential shops, Metro trains, government offices, except those dealing with essential services, under the four-stage Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) approved by DDMA.
We have overcome the dangerous second wave last year and we will sail through this one too, Kejriwal said. He appealed to the public not to go out unnecessarily, follow social distancing norms and take vaccine when their turn comes.
Witnessing the surge in cases, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that the Delhi government has decided to increase 5,650 normal beds and 2,075 ICU beds for coronavirus patients in 14 hospitals, along with 2,800 beds in eight COVID-care centres.
In a statement, he said the government is making all necessary arrangements in view of the rising coronavirus cases and the situation is normal.
"Around 13,300 beds are still available for patients in Delhi hospitals. It has been decided to increase the number of beds. The Delhi government is ready to deal with the most serious situation. Delhi's health system is fully prepared to prevent this wave of coronavirus and provide timely treatment to all the people of the state," Jain said.
The National Capital has been seeing an uptick of daily cases in the last few days, mainly triggered by the Omicron variant, and to control the spread of the virus, the city is observing weekend curfew.
DDMA has also ordered a 10pm- 5am night curfew on weekdays and asked private offices to make at least 50 percent of their staff work from home.
Delhi government has asked its employees to work from home or online, except those engaged in essential and emergency services such as fire services, water supply, health, etc.
Shops in shopping malls and markets have been told to operate on an odd-even basis (10am-8pm), restaurants and bars are allowed to operate with 50 percent seating capacity on weekdays and on weekends, only takeaways are allowed.
Only 20 people are allowed to attend wedding functions and funerals.
These restrictions are likely to remain for the time being.
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