Amid Covid surge, Delhi CM says mask not mandatory

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 31

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal chaired a high-level meeting today to review the preparations to handle Covid spread in the city. The meeting comes amid a spike in Covid cases in the past two weeks.

Kejriwal said, “Wearing face masks in public places was not mandatory. There is no need to panic. The government is prepared to handle any situation arising due to Covid.”

However, he advised patients with influenza and respiratory diseases to wear masks in public places. Delhi’s daily Covid positivity rate has increased to over 12 per cent this week.

The meeting was attended by Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj, Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot, the Chief Secretary and the officials of various departments. During the meeting, officials apprised the CM of the state’s preparedness in terms of hospital beds, oxygen capacity, and testing and prevention measures.

Kejriwal said there were only 42 positive cases of the infection on March 15, but in a fortnight 295 cases had been reported. The active Covid cases in Delhi stands at 932. Yesterday, a total of 2,363 tests were conducted in the Capital.

He further added that there were three deaths due to Covid in the past few days. “Two deaths were reported on March 29, and one other was reported a few days ago. The patients had comorbidities,” Kejriwal said.

The government in a press release said the positive cases were being sent for genome sequencing to detect any new variant of the virus.