New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced a six-day lockdown
in Delhi, starting from 2200 hrs tonight till 0500 hrs of April 26 in the wake of a sharp surge in
Coronavirus cases in the city.
The announcement came after Mr Kejriwal met with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.
Addressing a digital press conference here, Mr Kejriwal said that with 25,000 cases daily, the health system
of Delhi has reached its limit. It has not collapsed but is under great stress.
He said that if strict measures are not taken now, the health system in Delhi can collapse.
The Chief Minister said in this period of six-days of lockdown, the Delhi government would arrange
for a large number of beds and utilise this lockdown to arrange for oxygen and medicines.
Mr Kejriwal thanked the Centre for helping the Delhi government.
He requested people in the city to follow the guidelines.
Mr Kejriwal requested the migrant labourers to stay in Delhi and not panic.
He said, "LG and I have taken this decision only when no other option was available. It was not easy for us to take this decision as I understand how people lose their jobs and salaries during the lockdown. This is especially
difficult for the economically weaker sections and daily wage labourers. The last time when the lockdown was imposed in the entire country, we saw how a large number of migrant workers began returning to their villages.'
'I would like to appeal to them, with my hands joined, this is a short lockdown for 6 days. Please do not leave Delhi. You would lose a lot of time, money, and energy in traveling. Stay in Delhi. I have full faith that this short period of lockdown would not be extended. We might not have to extend it. Trust me that if we fight this together, we would be able to overcome this. I assure you, the government will take full care of you. I am here, have faith in me," the Delhi Chief Minister said.
He also said that in this duration, all essential services concerning food, medicine, etc will continue, a total of 50 people would be allowed to attend weddings for which separate passes will be issued.
'A detailed order would be published in a while, stating all services that would continue and all those that would be prohibited," Mr Kejriwal said.
Adressing the press conference, Mr Kejriwal said, "As far as the current situation in Delhi is concerned, in the last 24 hours, approximately 23,500 new cases have come up. Prior to that, around 25,500 cases came
to light. Hence, from the past 3-4 days we have noticed that around 25,000 cases are coming up on a daily basis. Positivity has increased a lot.'
'The number of beds in the Delhi hospitals is falling short. If 25,000 cases come up daily then any
system can creak. There is a heavy shortage of beds in Delhi. I checked the app today and it showed that there are less than 100 ICU beds in Delhi. There is a shortage of oxygen as well,' Mr Kejriwal said.
'We wrote to the central government as well and discussions are going on. A night before yesterday, a
tragedy was prevented. One private hospital informed us that around 3 AM, the night before yesterday, they had almost no oxygen left. They panicked as a huge tragedy could have occurred. It was with great difficulty that they managed to procure oxygen. We are falling short of medicines, especially Remdesivir," he said.
Mr Kejriwal said, "I had a meeting with LG at 11 AM today and we discussed at length the entire situation at hand and all its aspects. After this, we felt that Delhi's healthcare system would not be able to take in more patients on such a large scale. If we do not impose a lockdown now, we might face a tragedy. We do not want Delhi to face such a situation where patients are lying on the corridors or losing their life on the streets; at any cost."
"After reviewing the entire situation, your government feels that it is pertinent to impose a lockdown in Delhi for a few days. Hence, a lockdown is being imposed in Delhi from 10 PM tonight to 5 AM next Monday morning, that is for 6 days,' he said.
The Chief Minister said he was against lockdown but forced to take the difficult decision as the healthcare system is under stress due to unpredictable hospitalisation of Covid-infected patients.
The Chief Minister said he has appealed to the Centre for the supply of medical oxygen and anti-viral drugs and set up more beds for Covid patients.
He asked the people to not panic as the healthcare system is still in place but urged them to follow Covid guidelines and take precautions.
Without taking names, Mr Kejriwal claimed that his government is truthful unlike others, and never hides the real situation from the public.
He also claimed that Delhi is the only state where nearly one lakh Covid tests are conducted every day.
Mr Kejriwal said, "We did not let the number of tests reduce. Today, the maximum number of tests are being conducted in Delhi. If we notice the number of tests being done per 10 lakh persons, then Delhi is conducting the highest number of tests in the world. I saw that in many places they reduced the number of tests due to which the number of cases that came to light, reduced as well. In this manner, misinformation was spread. But we did not resort to anything like this. We did not reduce the number of tests. Instead, we increased them by manifolds. Today, almost 1 lakh Corona tests are being conducted in Delhi."
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