NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that the Covid-19 curbs imposed on the national capital would be eased at the earliest, owing to the improving trends in the cases and positivity rate.
On the sidelines of a Republic Day programme at the Delhi Secretariat, he said, “I assure everyone, we are working together to find solutions. As soon as we can, we will lift these curbs.” Talking about his proposal of ending weekend curfew being rejected by the Lt Governor, Kejriwal said, “We had sent a few proposals to the L-G. He accepted a few and deferred the rest. I noticed that people are showing resentment against him on social media. I want to tell them our L-G has done this in his wise wisdom. He is concerned about public health and wants to protect all citizens.”
He added, “Whenever Covid spreads, we’ve to take tough decisions. We are forced to impose weekend curfews, and odd-even protocols. All of this painfully impacts the economy. We understand how it affects livelihood. But I’d request everyone to understand that we only impose the least of the restrictions we are bound to. We don’t want to hurt the economy. But protecting lives and ensuring greater public health is paramount.”
On January 13, as many as 29,000 Covid cases were recorded. “It was almost as much as our highest trend during the fourth wave of Delhi or the second wave of the country in April. Unlike the situation back then, this time around only 2,500 to 3,000 patients needed hospitalisation. On January 15, we recorded our highest positivity rate around 30%. After 10 days, we saw it dip to around 10% yesterday. The cases are similarly seeing a decline too,” he said.