5 more coronavirus cases in Delhi, says Arvind Kejriwal; follows up with a request

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement about five more people testing positive to the virus raises the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Delhi to 36.

Five more people have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen in national capital Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday evening, reiterating his appeal to people to stay at home as part of the nationwide lockdown.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said five more people had been tested positive to the SARS-Cov-2 pathogen that causes coronavirus disease. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

Kejriwal did not give any details about the new coronavirus patients except to underscore that only one of the five had a history of foreign travel. The remaining four were either family members of coronavirus patients or had come in close contact with them.

Wednesday’s test reports that confirmed five cases comes after a 2-day reprieve for the national capital. For the last two days, Kejriwal had been counting the number of hours that there hadn’t been an increase in the number of cases.

Watch | Covid-19: Kejriwal briefs on essential supplies, e-pass amid nationwide lockdown

Just last evening, Kejriwal had declared that no new case had been reported in Delhi and 23 Covid-19 patients remained in hospitals. ”People are recovering and going back to their homes,” he had said last evening.

Earlier on Wednesday, the health ministry had reduced the count of the number of people who died because of the disease in Delhi from 2 to 1. The health ministry said the second Delhi patient to have died because of the virus had tested negative in the report that came after the 68-year-old woman’s death.

Kejriwal said the 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was necessary to stop the highly contagious disease from spreading as it had in the world and people should abide by the restrictions placed on their movement. At the same time, he emphasised that people would not face problems getting essential commodities or accessing basic essential services.

“It is the government’s responsibility that essential services are provided to all,” he said.

At the same time, Kejriwal requested people to take care of the needs of the poor and vulnerable living in their vicinity during this lockdown. “Don’t allow anyone to sleep hungry,” he said, urging people to take up this challenge as their pious duty.

The chief minister also clarified that people who from their local grocery shops do not need curfew passes. For people who are engaged in delivering essential services or are engaged to carry out permitted activities, can use their ID card issued by a company to travel. It is only people who do not have such an identification that they need to get an e-pass from the authorities.