Expressing concern over the spike in Covid-19 cases in the national capital, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday that his government is planning to take steps in the coming week to address the issue. He also said the situation is expected to come under control in another seven to ten days.
However, he did not elaborate on the options being considered by the government to control the ongoing spike in cases and recorded deaths. The CM?also said that pollution is a contributing factor in the spike in the coronavirus disease cases.
Senior government officials said the government has asked the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) – which is chaired by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal – to convene a meeting by Tuesday to discuss the course of action.
“The Covid-19 situation in Delhi is concerning. Next week, we will take some more steps to address it. The situation should come under control in 7-10 days,” said Kejriwal in a video press briefing.
On Thursday, Delhi recorded 7,053 new Covid-19 cases and 104 deaths in 24 hours – the highest fatalities for a single day yet. So far, 467,028 people in the capital have been diagnosed Covid-19 positive, of which 416,580 have recovered, and 7,332 have died.
Dr Lalit Kant, former head of the epidemiology and communicable diseases in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said, “By the current trends, it looks like cases can go up for at least another three weeks unless the government imposes restrictions on non-essential activities – that can concern market timings, size of gatherings, etc.”
In Friday’s press briefing, Kejriwal shared results of an experiment with a bio decomposer – developed by the Pusa Institute – that can be used as an alternative for crop stubble burning. Last month, he had said that the bio decomposer was spread over 2,000 acres of farm lands in Delhi and results of the experiment – based on samples collected from 24 villages – showed that 70%-95% of total crop stubble had been decomposed.
“Now, we have a solution. I urge other states, the Central government and the Supreme Court to take note of it. The Delhi government will file a petition along with this report to the Central government’s air quality commission, urging them to issue directions to states to use the bio decomposer,” said Kejriwal, adding that air pollution in Delhi was contributing to the spike in Covid-19 cases
