Lockdown has helped break chain of Covid infection: Kejriwal
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said based on public feedback and under compulsion, only to stem the spread of COVID, the Delhi government is extending the lockdown for another week.
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He said that we must remember that “Jaan Hai Toh Jahan Hai”, therefore, this lockdown will be stricter and the Delhi Metro will not be plying from May 10.
Kejriwal said that on 20th April Delhi imposed the lockdown, on 26th April the positivity rate touched 35 per cent and with the cooperation of the citizens now the positivity rate is around 23 per cent, which means the chain of COVID infection has started to break.
Kejriwal said that every citizen has cooperated during this lockdown and expressed his hope that this cooperation will continue.
He said he spoke to people across the spectrum to get their feedback on lockdown. He said that the Central government has helped Delhi in every situation, and since at present, more vaccines were the need of the hour, he hoped that the Centre will provide an adequate number of vaccines soon.
Kejriwal said: “When last month COVID cases rapidly surged in Delhi, we witnessed just how dangerous this particular wave was, with an alarming number of people facing serious conditions, needing hospitalisation, ICU beds, many lost their lives. We were thus compelled to impose a lockdown on 20th April. Cases were on a steady rise, and owing to the lockdown and many other reasons, on 26th April the positivity rate increased to 35 per cent, which is huge. This implied that if we tested 100 people then 35 people out of them turned out to be positive.”
He said: “After April 26, because a lockdown was imposed, the chain of the coronavirus somewhat started to break. Starting 26th April, the cases began to decrease. Now, in the past 2-3 days, the positivity ratio has come down to 23 per cent from the earlier 35 per cent.
“Thus the cases have started to come down in Delhi. A great contribution to this has been that of the people, who extended their full support. Everyone adhered to the norms of the lockdown. We have not done this as a favour to anyone else, this is a matter of our own lives and health.”
Kejriwal said: “We have used this lockdown period to strengthen our health resources and infrastructure. New oxygen beds were prepared in many places. The biggest problem that Delhi faced was shortage of oxygen. More than normal oxygen came to be required by the hospitals since most of the COVID patients required oxygen. In the past few days, with the Central Government’s help and based on the directions by the Supreme Court and High Court, the oxygen situation has improved. Now one does not have to listen to such things that only two hours of oxygen are left in one hospital and half an hour of oxygen left in the other, that someone may die because of shortage of Oxygen. Now one is not coming across such issues. We’ve made several attempts during the lockdown to improve our own system.”
He added: “Now, the vaccination drive has also gained momentum. Those who’ve gotten vaccinated must have witnessed that the Delhi Government has made such extraordinary arrangements in government schools. I’m pleased to note that our efforts have been appreciated. Our youngsters are getting vaccinated, and people from neighbouring areas are coming to Delhi to get vaccinated. There is a scarcity in the stock of vaccines, and we’ve asked the Centre for assistance. I’m hopeful that just the way the Central Government has been supportive on other issues, they will also be supportive in this matter.”
Kejriwal said: “In the past few days, I’ve interacted with several people, and everyone believes that while the COVID cases have reduced, they’re still many. The infection rate is still 23% — one cannot afford to let their guard down. Thus, everyone believes that the lockdown needs to be extended further. These restrictions need to be upheld for some time more. Otherwise, we will lose whatever we have achieved till now. As I have mentioned earlier, this is an extremely difficult period, the second wave is quite deadly, with many losing lives. Only if we can live, can we conquer. If we are able to live our lives, we can do a lot of things later in life. First and foremost, we have to save lives.”
The CM said: “The government, based on everyone’s feedback, and owing to the helplessness of the situation, will extend the lockdown by one week. The current lockdown was to end at 5 am tomorrow, but now this is being extended to next Monday, 5 am, and will be more stringent. Starting tomorrow, the metro services will also stop operating. Our effort is that the more stringent the lockdown is, the more rapidly we will be able to conquer COVID. I appeal to everyone that the way all of you have supported the Government, the way you have adhered to the lockdown in its entirety, please continue to do the same in the upcoming days.”
