Record spike of 2,137 cases take tally to over 36K
Lockdown in Delhi will not be extended, says Satyendar Jain
With the highest singleday spike of 2,137 Covid-19 cases on Friday, the total tally in Delhi crossed the 36,000-mark as the death toll due to the disease climbed to 1,214, authorities said.
According to a health bulletin of the Delhi health department, 71 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours. This is the first time that over 2,000 cases have been reported in a day in Delhi.
The death toll from coronavirus infection has risen to 1,214 while the total number of cases mounted to 36,824, the bulletin stated, adding that 58 fatalities, that occurred between May 9 and June 6, were also declared on Friday.
Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said that the lockdown to prevent the spread of the disease will not be extended in city. “No, the lockdown will not be extended,” Mr Jain said on the possibility of the capital returning to a state of total lockdown to check the spiraling Covid-19 cases.
The clarification came in response to a huge buzz on social media and sections of the media that these
states would go back into lockdown from June 15 till July 31. Even the Delhi high court declined to entertain two PILs seeking direction to the AAP government to consider imposing lockdown in the national capital in view of the spike in Covid-19 cases. A bench of chief justice D.N. Patel and justice Prateek Jalan heard the matter and said it was not going to issue any notice and subsequently, the petitioners withdrew
their pleas.
While rejecting the possibility of reimposing the lockdown, Mr Jain said that the lockdown in Delhi will no longer be extended. Reacting to mismatch of death figure, Mr Jain said, “Those who are cremated under the Covid-19 protocol, belong to two of these categories. One, those who died because of corona, and two, those who are suspects of corona. For instance, if a senior citizen in a family passes
away, and there was a Covid +ve case or a suspect in their family, they will be treated as corona suspects and they will be cremated under the Covid protocol. The government has created a system for this, and all the hospitals report to us in a very systematic manner. The MCDs should send the details to the Delhi government. It also happens that we observe cases wherein the patient was cremated under the Covid protocol but their reports show negative later on when obtained from the hospitals. Therefore, if the MCDs have the details of the casualties, it should send it to the Delhi government but it can’t say over 2,000 people have died if they only have numbers and not the details. There should also be a positive report of those patients and the number should also be confirmed.”
In Delhi high court, one of the petitions was moved by a lawyer, Anirban Mondal, who wanted the Delhi government to consider imposing lockdown in view of rising COVID-19 cases in the city.
Advocate Mridul Chakravarty, appearing for Mondal, said he submitted before the bench that the Madras high court has asked the Tamil Nadu government as to why the lockdown cannot be imposed again and on Thursday another bench of Delhi high court had observed that the city was heading towards becoming the corona capital in view of spike in Covid-19 cases. He said he also submitted before the court that lockdown for a limited period would provide the Delhi government with breathing space, break the transmission cycle and ramp up the facilities.