NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that the Delhi government has no plans to impose the blockade on the national capital, even as the fifth wave of infections continues to spread through the city.
The prime minister said that Delhi has reported around 22,000 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. Sunday’s daily health bulletin will be published later in the evening. Saturday’s bulletin indicated that the city added 20,181 new cases of Covid-19, and 19.6% of the tests were positive. The Delhi test’s positivity rate is the highest since May 9 last year, when the statistic reached 21.67%. Dehi’s Covid positivity rate on December 28 was less than 1%.
Arvind Kejriwal announced his recovery from the Covid-19 infection on Twitter and addressed a video briefing shortly after, where he appealed to everyone not to panic and to strictly follow all Covid protocols. The prime minister stressed that although the city is experiencing rapid transmission of Covid-19, the occupancy of hospital beds is very low and the recovery is very high.
“During the latest wave of Covid, 20,000 single-day cases were reported on May 7, 2021, but there were 341 deaths and 20,000 hospital beds were occupied. Delhi reported 20,000 cases on January 8, but there were only seven deaths and 1,500 beds are occupied, ”the chief minister said, adding that he was closely monitoring the Covid situation even while remaining in home isolation.
The Disaster Management Authority of Delhi has called a meeting on Monday morning to discuss the prevailing Covid situation with experts and senior officials and decide whether the Capital needs more economic and travel restrictions to avoid the coronavirus.
As of now, the DDMA has ordered a weekend curfew, a night curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays, and has recommended that private offices make at least 50% of their staff work from home.
All Delhi government employees have been asked to work from home or online except those who are engaged in essential and emergency services such as fire services, prison, water supply, health, etc.
Stores in shopping malls and markets have been said to operate fairly (10 AM to 8 PM), Dining services in restaurants and bars are limited to 50% capacity seating on weekdays and takeout is only allowed during weekend curfew.
On weekdays, a weekly market is allowed to open in one area per day and authorities have been asked to take steps to ensure crowd management. Only 20 people can attend weddings and funerals.
Officials said all of these restrictions are likely to continue for now.
The Step-by-Step Action Plan details four different levels of economic constraints that will go into effect at different levels of positivity rate. The lowest alert level is classified as ‘Yellow Alert’ and came into effect when the positivity rate exceeded the 0.5% mark and remained above it for two consecutive days, and the highest alert level was It is classified as a ‘Red Alert’, which is scheduled to take effect if the 5% positivity rate is breached and the positivity remains above 5% for two consecutive days. ‘Red Alert’ (level 4) under GRAP almost crashes as restrictions. Under ‘Red Alert’ a full curfew will be imposed, the Delhi metro will be closed, only essential private offices will be allowed to open, shopping malls will be closed. Essential stores are allowed and only non-essential independent stores are allowed between 10 a.m. M. And 6 p.m. M.
Dr Lalit Kant, former head of the department of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR, said the weekend curfew is designed to restrict the movement of people and will help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“The experience of different countries in the world affected by Omicron shows that the number of cases will continue to increase in the country, especially in the coming weeks. Omicron spreads four times faster than the Delta variant, but the infection is mild … The peak is likely to reach in the first week of February. People should avoid meeting people and avoid meetings and adhere to guidelines, ”Dr. Lalit said. He also added that the use of masks is very important and due to a better fit and better filtration capacity, N95 masks provide better protection.
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