Covid-19 second wave: 59% of Delhi residents favour three-week lockdown

Ahead of the meeting Thursday between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and LG Anil Baijal, 59 per cent Delhi residents are in favour of a 3-week lockdown.

 

As per a Local Circles survey, 16 per cent residents of Delhi were in support of lockdown at the end of March and the number of people supporting it has risen by 275 per cent in less than three weeks.

Covid-19 cases are rising exponentially amid the SARS-COV-2 variant propagating in Delhi with the city registering a 4,200 per cent increase in its daily caseload within the last 30 days.

On March 15th, the city had 400 Covid cases which on April 14th had gone up to 17,282. The positivity rate is currently at 15.92 per cent, with 7,67,438 positive cases, which is the highest ever in the state. Notably, 91.92 per cent of ventilator beds are currently occupied, with only 99 beds now available from the total 1,226 beds.

LocalCircles conducted a survey which received over 8,000 responses from residents located in all 11 districts of Delhi.

As daily caseload in Delhi goes past 17,000, 59 per cent residents say impose lockdown, the survey said.

Taking cognizance of the drastic increase in the daily Covid caseload that has surpassed 17,000 the survey sought residents of Delhi's perception if they support imposition of a complete 3-week lockdown in the city. In response, 59 per cent said "Yes". There were also 36 per cent of residents who said "No", while 5 per cent couldn't say. The question in the survey received 8,211 responses.

At the end of March, when LocalCircles did a similar exercise, only 16 per cent residents of Delhi, who participated in the survey, were in favour of a lockdown.

However, with rising cases, people seeing their contacts in social networks struggling to find hospital and ICU beds, remdesivir, etc. many more are now understanding the criticality of the situation and as a result 59 per cent residents of Delhi, who participated in the survey concluding on April 15, voted in favour of a 3 week lockdown.

It was categorically stated that while lockdown is imposed, all essential services must continue to function in the city so that people do not face hardships in running their households.

LocalCircles has shared the findings of this survey with the Office of Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and the Office of Chief Minister so as they discuss the Delhi situation and decide on the way forward, this collective public feedback is taken into account.

(Sanjeev Sharma can be reached at Sanjeev.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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