Kejriwal to share Delhi and India’s experience in fight against Covid-19 in global meet

india

Updated: Mar 27, 2020 16:33 IST

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will represent Delhi and India in a global meet of city leaders being held on Friday evening to share lessons in fight against coronavirus. The meeting is being organised by an international body named C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group through video conferencing, agencies reported.

Delhi chief minister will address around 35 top city leaders from across the world including the mayors of Los Angeles, Seoul, Paris, Milan, Istanbul and Rome, among others, reported PTI.

The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi led by Kejriwal was the first to announce a lockdown to contain the spread of Sars-Cov-2 virus before the announcement of a nation-wide lockdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Kejriwal government responded to the contagion by ordering private firms, barring those involved in the delivery of essential services, to shut down operations to enforce social distancing, besides, shutting public and private educational institutions, places for recreation, religious and social gatherings, mass transport systems in the private and public sector.

The Delhi government also scaled up facilities for testing and quarantine for suspected cases while simultaneously announcing a slew of welfare measures for the vulnerable sections of society.

On Friday, the chief minister told media that the national capital was ready to deal with a possible rapid rise in the number of positive cases to even up to a thousand a day.

He said a five-member panel of doctors had readied a standard operating procedure for dealing with the situation involving 100, 500 and up to 1,000 new coronavirus patients per day.

“We are removing the shortcomings and making preparations to deal with a situation of up to 1,000 coronavirus cases per day. I, however, hope that the number of cases will come down in the coming days,” Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal said Delhi had seen a total of 39 coronavirus cases till now, however, a Central health ministry dashboard puts the number of confirmed cases in the capital to 35. The ministry says 6 positive cases were discharged after successful treatment.

Kejriwal government had announced free ration for the poor enrolled in the PDS system, direct cash transfers for registered daily-wage workers, free cooked food in night shelters (mainly for the impoverished and the homeless), additional money for pensioners among other measures to mitigate the fallout of the lockdown necessitated by the outbreak.

Kejriwal said on Friday that nearly two lakh poor people in the city were being fed currently and that it will double to four lakh from Saturday.

Besides 224 night-shelters, 325 government schools will also distribute food, including lunch and dinner, among the poor and homeless people, Kejriwal said.

He also assured that migrants from other states will also be taken care of by his government.