Delhi, Raj in lockdown to control Covid-19
NEW DELHI/JAIPUR: A six-day lockdown was announced in Delhi, while the Rajasthan government declared a 15-day strict curfew, citing a relentless surge in Covid-19 infections in the last two weeks that and has now inundated hospitals and triggered a shortage in critical medical supplies.
Delhi chief minister Arvind
Kejriwal said the city added 23,500 new cases in the last 24 hours, and that the curfew was necessary to allow enhancements in the numbers of beds and supplies of life-saving drugs and oxygen to catch up.
“Delhi’s health system is now unable to take in more patients. It is now necessary to impose a lockdown in Delhi from 10 pm today to 5am on Monday (April 26). Essential services will
remain open, food and medicine shops will be allowed to operate, weddings will be limited to 50 guests. A detailed order will be released soon,” he said.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the “lockdown-like restrictions” imposed in the state are meant to control the alarming surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths, and not create panic among people, including labourers. He said the situation was “very alarming and dangerous” and the decision to impose the restrictions was taken after a review meeting.
After the state registered a record single-day spike of 10,262 coronavirus cases and 42 deaths on Sunday, the government late on Sunday night issued an order to impose lockdown, calling it “Public Discipline Fortnight”, from 5 am on Monday to 5 am on May 3.
“The new guidelines and provisions issued last night (Monday) are aimed at containing the steep surge in positive cases and deaths. At the same time, we have ensured that there is no panic among the labourers,” Gehlot told news agency PTI.
Only shops and offices providing essential services will open in the Rajasthan during the 15-day period. Those entering Rajasthan will have to show a negative RT-PCR report issued 72 hours prior to travel, the order said.
Earlier, the Rajasthan government had imposed a night curfew in the entire state from April 16. All educational and coaching institutes have been orders to remain shut till April 30.
In Delhi, the decision to impose the six-day lockdown was taken in a Covid-19 review meeting held between Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Kejriwal on Monday morning. “The situation of Covid-19 in NCT of Delhi has again been reviewed and it has been observed that there has been a very sharp increase in Covid-19 cases along with very high positivity rate over the last few days and therefore, it is felt that in order to contain the fast spread of the virus, a curfew needs to be imposed in the territory of NCT of Delhi, except for essential activities/services, as an emergency measure, in order to break the transmission chain of Covid-19 virus and for the overall well being and safety of the people of Delhi,” said the order issued shortly afterwards by the chief secretary Vijay Dev.
While the restrictions are not entirely a curfew, movement will be prohibited unless someone is seeking or providing essential services, medical help, or has to go to a handful of exempted workplaces, such as government offices. People in some of these categories will require an e-pass from the government, the order added, while others will need to show an identity card. The rules are almost identical to those for the weekend and night curfew that has been in place in Delhi.
According to HT’s dashboard, the average number of cases added in the Capital each day has risen 586% from April 4 till April 18. In this period, the average test positivity rate – a proxy for how large an outbreak may be beyond case numbers – has risen from 3.57% to 19.39%.
This surge prompted a consensus among citizens to support a lockdown-like period of restriction.
In Rajasthan, the doubling rate of coronavirus cases dropped to 45 days from 94 days just over a week ago, officials said. The weekly positivity rate and the death rate have also increased at a fast pace, Rajasthan health secretary Siddharth Mahajan said.
“Thirty-one deaths took place last month but in 17 days of April, 291 deaths have occurred. It is almost 10 times higher,” he had mentioned in a presentation that was shown during a chief minister’s review meeting on Sunday.
The weekly positivity rate – a ratio of the number of positive cases to total tests conducted, and a measure of the scale of an outbreak in the region – was 2.27% four weeks ago and it has now increased to 12.91%, Mahajan said.