No lockdown in Delhi but new restrictions will be announced soon: CM Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said that no lockdown will be imposed in the national capital despite a sudden surge in the COVID-19 cases.

He, however, said that some more restrictions will be announced soon. The AAP chief said that there is a need to remove age criteria and scale up the Covid-19 vaccination process to curb the COVID surge. 

"If we have enough doses and the age bar is removed, we can vaccinate people within 2-3 months in Delhi. Currently, we have the vaccine for 7-10 days. We need to remove age criteria and scale-up vaccination. There will be no lockdown. New restrictions will be imposed soon," CM Kejriwal said.

If we have enough doses & age bar is removed, we can vaccinate people within 2-3 months in Delhi. Currently, we've vaccine for 7-10 days. We need to remove age criteria & scale up vaccination. There'll be no lockdown. New restrictions will be imposed soon:Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal pic.twitter.com/v8YfK1SUks

— ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2021

Amid the massive spike in Covid-19 cases, the Delhi government had on Friday ordered all government and private schools in the capital to shut till further orders.

"Due to rising Covid-19 cases, all government and private schools and all classes will remain shut till further notice," Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

The national capital reported 8,521 new Covid infections - the second-highest daily-spike since the onset of the pandemic -- and 39 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Delhi government`s health bulletin on Friday.

The city had witnessed the highest single-day spike of 8,593 on November 11 last year. The daily positivity rate was reported at 7.79 per cent, while the cumulative positivity rate was registered at 4.6 per cent.

At present, the active cases stand at 26,631, out of which 13,188 are in home isolation. On a positive note, 5,032 coronavirus infected people recovered, taking the total so far to 6,68,699. 

With 39 more deaths on Friday, the Covid-19 related death toll rose to 11,196. As many as 109,398 samples were tested -- 70,403 by RT-PCR and 38,995 through the Rapid Antigen Test.

In a matter of concern, at least 20 doctors and six MBBS students at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) here have also tested positive for coronavirus, sources said.

Several states and Union territories including Delhi have announced new restrictions such as night curfews amid a new wave of Covid-19 that has pushed infection numbers to record highs. In order to further curb the spread of the pandemic, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on April 6 imposed a night curfew in Delhi between 10 pm and 5 am till April 30.