New Delhi: As the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) extended the lockdown till May 31, the Delhi government on Sunday said the guidelines are in the right direction of opening up the economy as more decision-making power has been given to states.
In a statement, the Arvind Kejriwal government said while it expected a slight increase in cases when the economy reopens, it asserted that Delhi is prepared to deal with it.
“Broadly, the Centre’s guidelines are in the right direction of opening up the economy and leaving it to states to work out the details. We have always been saying that we all will have to learn to live with Corona,” an official statement said.
It also said that in the last two month of the lockdown, Delhi has prepared itself for dealing with corona by improving necessary logistics and health infrastructure.
“We do expect a slight increase in cases when the economy reopens and Delhi is prepared to deal with it.”
The MHA directed the states to decide the zones — Red, Green and Orange — taking into consideration the parameters shared by the Health Ministry.
It says the “zones can be a district, or a municipal corporation/municipality or even smaller administrative units such as sub-divisions, etc, as decided by states and UTs.”
While there are different relaxations for different zones, certain countrywide prohibitions have been put in place irrespective of the zones.
In the last edition of the lockdown ending on Sunday midnight, all the 11 districts of the national capital were marked as a red zone with the government demanding the Centre to not consider the zones district wise.
So far, there have been 9,755 COVID cases in Delhi with 148 deaths.
The Delhi government has been pushing for opening up the economic activities in the city, saying due to the lockdown, the national capital has reported a revenue loss of about Rs 3,200 crore in April as compared to the previous year.
