Delhi extends Covid-19 lockdown till May 24

The lockdown imposed on April 19 has been extended for the fourth time

The Covid-19 lockdown in the national capital has been extended by another week till May 24 even as the test positivity rate further declined to 10.40 per cent with Delhi Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saying the government do not want to lose the gains accrued through restrictions imposed so far.

The Sunday medical bulletin showed that Delhi reported 6,456, which was a slight increase from Saturday's 6,430. However, on a positive note, there was an increase in the number of tests conducted — 62,509 as against 56,811.

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The number of tests increased by around 5,700 but the number of cases rose by only 26, bringing down the positivity rate to 10.40 per cent from 11.32 per cent on Saturday and 12.40 per cent on Friday. The daily death toll fell to 262 as against 337 on Saturday.

Announcing the extension of lockdown, the Chief Minister said, "Covid-19 is rapidly declining, but the gains we have made in the past few days, we don’t want to lose them. So we are going to extend the lockdown for another week. Rather than tomorrow, 5 am, the lockdown in Delhi is being extended till next Monday at 5 am."

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He expressed hope that in the next week, there will be greater recovery. "As far as I can understand, Delhi is slowly coming back on track. The lockdown is to continue as it is and no concessions will be given, he said.

Last week, the Delhi government had shut the Metro services and prohibited marriage functions in public places. These restrictions will continue.

Regarding Covaxin and Covishield, Kejriwal said the Delhi government has written to the Centre and the two manufacturing companies to provide the capital with the vaccine, but there is no indication of the vaccine being given to them.