How timely curbs, lockdown in Capital were key to breaking chain of infections

At 12.15pm on April 19, when Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a lockdown, the Capital was in dire straits.

The city had posted an average of 24,000 cases daily for the past four days, every third person tested was turning out positive, hospitals were overrun and pharmacies were short of critical drugs and essentials. Faced with a spiralling virus spread, the government decided to shut down the city and try to break

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the chain of transmission. “If we don’t impose a lockdown now, it will lead to a major tragedy,” Kejriwal said at the time.

The decision has paid rich dividends. In the six weeks that Delhi has remained locked, the city’s average daily case count plummeted from 23,686 to 2,108 on Wednesday, and the positivity rate dropped from 26.1% to 1.9%. The count of daily deaths, which usually shows a two-week lag from average infections, is also starting to fall with the city recording 130 deaths on Wednesday, the lowest in 41 days.

“It was time for decisive action and CM Kejriwal was clear that hard decisions had to be taken to control this wave. It’s because of his timely decision that Delhi was able to bring down its positivity rate from 35% to 2% within a month,” the chief minister’s office said.

Officials said that the lockdown was carefully planned. Prior to the announcement, Kejriwal announced a weekend curfew on April 17 and 18. Special arrangements were made for migrant workers and ration distribution was expanded for the poor. Average daily tests didn’t drop below 60,000, even at the peak of the fourth wave.

“Clearly, the numbers came down because the chain of transmission was broken by the lockdown,” said Dr Amit Singh, associate professor, Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.