Kejriwal “unwell”, meeting to discuss if Delhi reaches state of community transmission of Covid-19

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By Aminul Islam Mirja 

NEW DELHI, June 8, 2020 (BSS) – As coronavirus cases in Delhi have witnessed a sharp rise during the last couple of days, the authorities of the India’s National Capital have decided to hold a key-meeting tomorrow to figure out if Delhi has reached the state of community transmission of Covid-19.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia will chair the meeting in absence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who is “unwell” and is expected to take coronavirus test tomorrow, said the DCM in a virtual press conference here this afternoon.

Sisodia said that he has been authorised to attend the meeting tomorrow between the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) and experts. “If it shows that there has been community spread in Delhi, we will change the entire strategy,” he added.

The SDMA is the key body involved in decision-making during any crisis. It is headed by the Lieutenant-Governor, whose deputy is the Chief Minister.

Kejriwal (51) has gone into self-quarantine since Sunday afternoon. Earlier in the morning, he held a cabinet meeting at his official residence and after the cabinet meeting Kejriwal cancelled all his official engagements, news agency PTI quoted officials as saying.

The chief minister has been holding most of his meetings via video conferencing from his official residence for past two months, but has been going to the Delhi LG’s office for some important meetings.

The national capital has nearly 29,000 coronavirus cases, country’s third highest after Maharashtra (85,975) and Tamil Nadu (30,152).

There are 17,125 active cases of COVID-19 in the national capital while 10,999 people have recovered so far, news agency PTI reported quoting data provided by the union ministry of health affairs.  

The country’s biggest hotspot, Maharashtra currently has more coronavirus patients than China. But even in Maharashtra, the disease is not considered to be in the community transmission stage.

India’s total coronavirus cases jumped to 2,56,611 with 9983 fresh cases during the last 24 hours while nationwide total death toll due to the disease has been registered 7,200 with 271 deaths in the last 24 hours. 

India became the fifth worst coronavirus-hit country in the world as it surpassed Spain on Saturday. The US, Brazil, Russia and the UK have more cases than India.

India, which enforced a strict nationwide lockdown from March 25 to contain the spread of coronavirus, has lifted the first phase of lockdown on June 1 with guidelines that allow operation of domestic flights, transport, reopening of shopping malls, restaurants, hotel, bars and some places of worships.