New Delhi: Despite the decline in daily coronavirus cases and positivity rates, the Delhi government is mulling over the possibility of extending the ongoing COVID lockdown by another week as the national capital still faces high daily COVID-related deaths and vaccine shortage.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had first imposed a lockdown on April 19, 2021, which was later extended multiple times and lastly on May 16, 2021.
While responding to the media reports, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday (May 20, 2021) had said he will discuss the matter with Lt Governor Anil Baijal on the weekend.
The official sources told news agency PTI that, "The ongoing second wave has been very fatal and there are little chances that lockdown will be relaxed. Another weeklong extension will likely be announced by the government."
Additionally, Delhi Chief Minister on Saturday (May 22, 2021) revealed that “in the last 24 hours, around 2,200 cases were reported in the city and the positivity rate too declined to 3.5% but this does not mean the threat of coronavirus has been averted". The CM added, "We have to take all the steps to safeguard against coronavirus".
Meanwhile, as per the survey conducted by community platform LocalCircles, over 68% of the respondents favoured a weeklong extension of the COVID-induced lockdown in the national capital. The percentage of respondents favouring lockdown extension was 85% in the last two weeks.
However, the opinion of traders are divided on the issue. Speaking to PTI, the chairman of Chamber of Trade and Industry(CTI), Brijesh Goyal, said the opinion of traders was divided over the extension of the lockdown as revealed in a survey conducted by it. “Fifty percent traders of Delhi are in favour of extending the lockdown for another one week and the remaining 50 percent supported opening the city,” he said.
Additionally, 85% of factory owners were in favour of opening up all types of industrial activities shut due to the lockdown in the national capital.
On Saturday, the national capital recorded over 2,260 new COVID-19 cases, which is the lowest since March 1, and 182 fatalities. Also the positivity rate of Delhi slipped to 3.58 percent.
