#DelhiPeak: Delhi CM Kejriwal extends lockdown till 17 May; daily cases fall to 17K
9 May, 2021 | newsx bureau
The positivity rate in the national Capital dropped atleast five percentage points last week. This is the fourth time in the past five days that Delhi registered less than 20,000 active covid cases...
Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister, has extended the city’s lockdown for another week, tightening the restrictions. In the duration of this lockdown, even metro services have been halted. Delhi’s fourth lockdown will continue till 17th May. Kejriwal explained that the extension is necessary to ensure that the city does not relax its guard, even though Covid numbers have decreased slightly.
The lockdown comes at a time when on Monday, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria said that Delhi appeared to have reached the COVID-19 peak off, with the number of regular cases declining dramatically, but warned against any complacency. Dr Guleria also mentioned that while cases are rising in some states and will peak later, there is little evidence of COVID-19 population transmission at the national level. Guleria further added that however, even in cities where there is an increase in incidents, there are hotspots, and local transmission may be occurring in those regions, which is why containment zones need aggressive action.
The country’s capital has been one of the worst affected states by the pandemic with a case tally of 13,10,231 and a death toll of 19,071 as of Saturday. On Sunday, the state recorded 13,336 fresh cases of coronavirus diseases, and the states’ death count also fell below 300, as 273 deaths were reported. Dr Anup Kumar – HOD Urology, Robotics and Renal Transplant SJH and VMMC spoke to NewsX and said “I hope that after this 4th week of lockdown, we‘ll have some good figures which will show that the transmission is decreasing.”
Delhi reports 13,336 new #COVID19 cases, 273 deaths and 14,738 recoveries in the last 24 hours
Total cases: 13,23,567
Death toll: 19,344
Total recoveries: 12,17,991Active cases: 86,232 pic.twitter.com/EWJ79GTBBM
— ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2021
The declining trend in the cases has given the state some succor. Dr. Jacob John former Head of the Department of Virology at the Christian Medical College-Vellore said that the decreasing positivity rate is an indication that infection levels in Delhi have peaked. One can’t say for sure if the new reduction is due to the lockdown. This may be the disease’s natural progression; any infection can only propagate to a certain degree before succumbing, If correctly implemented, lockdown prevents interfamily transmissions, giving hospitals a break and allowing them to arrange beds, oxygen, and medications, among other things.