Delhi lockdown extended till May 17: Kejriwal

The ongoing lockdown in Delhi will run for another week until May 17 morning and Metro train services will be stopped during that period, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday. He said that while COVID-19 cases have declined in recent days, any slackness would squander the gains made so far in the current wave of the pandemic. The Delhi government was forced to impose the lockdown amid a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases on April 20.

Although cases have dropped and the positivity rate has dropped from a high of 35 percent on April 26 to around 23 percent now, but rigor is needed, he said.

The shutdown scheduled to end at 5 a.m. Monday will now run through May 17 morning.

The prime minister also said that the oxygen supply in Delhi has improved significantly in recent days. Vaccination is also proceeding at a rapid pace, although there is a lack of adequate vaccine stocks, Kejriwal said.

On Saturday, Delhi recorded 332 more deaths from COVID-19 and 17,364 new infections, while the positivity rate remained below 25 percent for the third day in a row, the Health Department said.

This is the fifth time in the last six days that the number of new cases has remained below 20,000.

Delhi had reported 19,832 cases on Friday, 19,133 cases on Thursday, 20,960 cases on Wednesday, 19,953 on Tuesday, 18,043 on Monday, 20,394 cases on Sunday, 25,219 on Saturday, 27,047 on Friday, 24,235 on last Thursday, and 25,986 on Wednesday of the week. pass. according to data.

The positive case rate was 23.34 percent, the lowest since April 16, when it was 19.7 percent, according to government data. It was 24.6 percent on April 17.

The national capital registered a positivity rate of 24.92% on Friday, 24.29% on Thursday, 26.37% on Wednesday, 26.73% on Tuesday, 29.56% on Monday, 28.33% on Sunday, 31.6% on Saturday. 32.7 percent on Friday and 32.8 percent last Thursday.