As Covid-19 cases continue to surge in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced a week-long curfew in the city. The decision comes after the CM held a meeting with Lieutenant General Anil Baijal in the wake of the biggest single day spike in the Covid-19 infections since the pandemic started last year. After the meeting Kejriwal announced that the city will be under complete curfew from 10 pm tonight to 6 am next Monday, April 26.
The Delhi CM said all private offices will Work From Home and only government offices and essential services, food services, medical services will continue. Weddings can be held with a gathering of only 50 people, passes will be issued separately for it. A detailed order will be issued shortly.
A weekend curfew was on in the capital to break the chain of transmission but continuing violations in parts of the city signaled that harsher steps were needed.
Other services that will be exempted from the curfew are as follows:
Arvind Kejriwal said in the last 24 hours, around 23,500 cases were reported. In the last 3-4 days, around 25,000 cases have been reported. Positivity rate and infection have increased. If 25,000 patients come every day then the system will crumble, there’s a shortage of beds, he added.
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Delhi’s health system has been stretched to its limit, is under stress. Harsh measures will have to be taken to prevent a collapse of the health system, he added.
India reported 2,73,810 new cases of Covid-19 infections and 1,619 deaths on Monday. The overall death tally of the country has reached 1.78 lakh. This is the fifth consecutive day that over 2 lakh fresh cases were reported in India. Now India’s caseload stands at 1.5 crore.
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