Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced extension of the ongoing lockdown in the national capital for another week, saying the severity of COVID-19 was unabated and positivity rate has been as high as 36 percent in last few days.
"We had imposed a 6-day lockdown in Delhi. The lockdown is being extended to next Monday (May 3) till 5 am," said the Chief Minister while addressing the press conference on Sunday.
"We will have to watch the situation for a few more days whether the cases decrease or increase," he said.
The Chief Minister said the onslaught of coronavirus has not subsided even as the government had imposed six days lockdown as a last weapon in its arsenal.
"Everybody voted for extension of lockdown. The positivity rate reached up to 36-37 percent in past few days although it has slightly dipped now. It is around 29 percent today," he said.
To keep watch on oxygen availability, the Delhi government has decided that the manufacturers, suppliers and hospitals will update supply and consumption data every two hours on a portal set up by it.
He said the Centre has further increased Delhi's oxygen quota by 10 tonnes per day and hoped the chaotic situation due to oxygen crisis in Delhi will end in a few days. "The Centre has increased Delhi's quota from 480 tonnes to 490 tonnes per day. But, we are yet to receive full quota. Currently only 330-335 tonnes per day supply is being received by us," he said.
The Chief Minister said his government is receiving much support from the Centre and both are properly coordinating to solve the oxygen supply problem.
Arvind Kejriwal had last week announced a week-long complete 'lockdown' from April 19, 10 pm till April 26 at 5 am.
Prior to that, the Delhi government had announced a weekend curfew in the national capital from 10 pm on April 16 till 6 am on April 19, and the closure of malls, gymnasiums and auditoriums till April 30 amid the surge in COVID-19 cases.
Delhi on Saturday reported 24,103 new COVID-19 cases and 357 deaths, the highest single-day toll for the city since the outbreak of the pandemic. This is the third successive day the national capital has seen the highest daily fatalities due to coronavirus.
The city now has 93,080 active cases. A Delhi Health Department bulletin said the total coronavirus cases count in the city has gone up to 10,04,782 and death toll has gone up to 13,898. The positivity rate in Delhi is 32.27 per cent and the case fatality rate is 1.38 per cent. A total of 22,695 patients also recovered from the disease taking the total number of recoveries to 8,97,805.
