NEW DELHI: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said that people will have to learn to live with the coronavirus, as an earlier belief that the virus will die with a rise in mercury has been debunked.
Countries with very high temperatures, such as ones in Latin America, continue to see a rise in the number of fresh cases. This development he said should prompt Indians to make changes to their lifestyles for the foreseeable future.
"There was a time when we all thought that this pandemic would be over by May 1 due to summer. But now we have seen that even in Latin American countries the virus continues to grow. The temperatures of these countries are very high. This shows that we have to learn to live with COVID-19," said Jain.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier spoken on the same lines about lifting the lockdown and getting back to business. "Maybe the virus will be around for two-three years, but no one can afford to stretch a lockdown that long. Yesterday, in India the growth rate of the coronavirus was 5 per cent and earlier there was a time when the growth rate was 20 per cent. I believe that the numbers should be seen in terms of the percentage increase," added the minister.
According to the Delhi government, there should be a balance between the fight against COVID and economic activities. "The fight against COVID-19 is still in full swing but we have to start resuming economic activities… When the lockdown was imposed we were not prepared to fight this pandemic but now we have prepared ourselves to fight it," said the health minister.
Jain, who is also Delhi’s Home minister, said that the government has sent its proposal regarding relaxation of lockdown norms to Centre based on suggestions the citizens put forward.