New Delhi:
The Delhi government is likely to extend the lockdown by at least one week as the cases in the city continue to soar, sources have told NDTV. An order to extend the lockdown is likely to be issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) today, they said.
Last week, Delhi was placed under a six-day lockdown till Monday after the national capital’s resources reached a breaking point amid an exponential rise in Covid cases. At the time Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that the lockdown will help it arrange more beds and supplies.
“If we don’t impose a lockdown now, we might face a bigger calamity. The government will take full care of you. We took this tough decision taking the situation into consideration,” Mr Kejriwal had said while announcing the lockdown.
But the worrying surge – Delhi has reported positivity rate of 32.27 per cent – has put pressure on the city’s medical infrastructure with hospitals reporting shortage of medical oxygen and ICU beds for critical Covid patients.
Flagging the crisis, several hospitals have approached the Delhi High Court for help.
“There is big human tragedy coming in next few minutes in our hospital. We have already lost 25 lives. We are gasping for oxygen. We have our Doctors before you. Please save lives. Please,” Jaipur Golden Hospital, where 25 patients died due to shortage of oxygen, said in its plea yesterday.
Delhi is the worst hit city. On Saturday, the national capital recorded its highest single-day rise of 357 deaths and over 24,000 new cases.
With the fresh cases, the national capital’s cumulative COVID-19 tally has climbed to over 10 lakh and the death count due to the viral disease stands at 13,898, according to the state government.
The data of the last 24 hours also revealed that the number of active coronavirus cases in the national capital is inching closer to the one-lakh mark. The tally of active cases has climbed to 93,080 in the city.
With inputs from PTI