Week-long Lockdown In New Delhi As Virus Cases Soar

New Delhi, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Apr, 2021 ) :India's capital New Delhi will impose a week-long lockdown from Monday night, officials said, as the megacity struggles to contain a huge surge in Covid-19 cases with hospitals running out of beds and oxygen supplies low.

The nation of 1.3 billion people reported a record-high of 273,810 infections on Monday -- the fifth-consecutive day of more than 200,000 cases -- to take the total to 15.06 million.

In Delhi -- the worst-hit city in India -- 25,500 fresh cases were reported on Sunday, with almost one-third of those tested returning positive coronavirus results.

"Delhi's health system is at a tipping point. The Covid-19 situation is pretty critical," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a televised address.

"If we don't impose a lockdown now, we will be looking at a bigger disaster. From tonight there will be a lockdown until next Monday." He said businesses would be shut and movement around the northern city of 20 million limited to essential services, from 10:00 pm on Monday to 5:00 am the following Monday.

"The lockdown doesn't end the pandemic but just slows it. We will use this week-long lockdown to improve our healthcare," he said, adding that the healthcare system was "under severe strain" and had "reached its limit".

In the last seven days, India has recorded more than 1.4 million cases -- an increase of 64 percent on the previous week, according to data compiled by AFP.

Experts blame complacency about the virus, with the spike coming after daily cases fell below 9,000 in February.

There is also growing concern that virus variants, including a "double mutant", are fuelling infections.

"It looks like the second wave is due to fast-spreading variants... It's spreading much faster than the first wave," virologist T. Jacob John told AFP.