The Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that the coronavirus situation in the city had worsened, that is why the government had imposed a six-day lockdown in the city last week. The lockdown was scheduled to end tomorrow. But due to the rising number of infections, the Delhi government has decided to extend the restrictions to curb the spread further.
“This is why, in consultation with people, the lockdown the lockdown is being extended till next Monday, 5 am”, said Arvind Kejriwal. Speaking further about the shortage of oxygen in the national capital, the CM said that the state and the central teams are working together to ensure that the demand is met.
“We have started a portal that will be updated every two hours by oxygen manufactures, hospitals and suppliers for better management of oxygen supply”, said Kejriwal.
According to a report by Livemint, the government was mulling over the decision to extend the week-long lockdown had started doing rounds from Saturday. A six-day lockdown was imposed by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on April 19 that will be in effect till 5 pm on Monday. But the step was taken to break the chain of infections and give a lift to a health system that was on the edge of a breakdown.
However, despite the restrictions, the positivity rate in Delhi continues to be over 30%. Kejriwal had earlier hoped that there might not be any need for extending the lockdown and he requested the migrant workers not to leave the city during the lockdown.
The Chambers of Trade and Industry in a survey had claimed that 70% of the Delhi traders favour extending the lockdown toll on April 30th. Brijesh Goyal, Chairman of CTI, said that most organisations were in favour of extending the lockdowns for five to seven days in Delhi. The traders made it clear that they would follow the decision made by the Delhi government about the lockdown and won’t do any lockdown on their part.
The national capital has recorded 24,103 new covid cases and 357 deaths as of Saturday. Since the outbreak of the disease, this is the highest single-day toll observed in the city. This is the third consecutive day the national capital had recorded the highest daily fatalities due to Coronavirus. The city now stands at 93,080 active cases, which is also the highest.
