Delhi government on Sunday extended the Covid-19 lockdown in the national capital by one week, saying the process of unlocking will begin from May 31 in a phased manner if cases decline.
The announcement by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal came on a day when Covid-19 cases in the capital dropped below 2,000-mark after the second wave of the virus hit the city. The health bulletin issued on Sunday said the city reported 1,649 cases in the past 24 hours as against 2,260 the previous day.
Kejriwal said the decision was taken after consulting the people of the capital and the lockdown will be in place till 5 am on May 31.
Delhi has been under complete lockdown since April 19 night.
"The battle is pending and is not over yet. Even now more than 1,000 cases are emerging... If we are to lift the lockdown right now, then we might lose out on whatever we have gained after a struggle, hard work, and sacrifice in the last month... If the cases continue to decline at this pace, we will start the unlock process in a phased manner," he said.
Appealing to people to support the government and adhere to the lockdown this week same as before, the Chief Minister said the administration is fully prepared for the third wave of Covid-19 and the "first and foremost agenda" is to get people vaccinated.
"The top priority of the Delhi government is to figure out how to vaccinate the 2.5 crore people of Delhi within three months, but there is a paucity of vaccines. It does not matter at what cost they are giving the vaccines to us, we are willing to spend from the budget of the Delhi government," the Chief Minister said.
According to the medical bulletin, the test positivity rate has dropped further to 2.42 per cent (68,043 tests) from 3.58 per cent (63,155 tests) on Saturday. However, the number of deaths marginally increased from 182 to 189.