Lockdown extended in Delhi to combat COVID-19

The lockdown in India's capital city Delhi has been extended for yet another week, till May 17, in a bid to curb the rising COVID-19 graph, reported Xinhua.

This would be the fourth consecutive week when Delhi will observe the weekend. The third week of lockdown ended on Sunday. This fourth week of lockdown will be stricter than the previous ones.

Metro services will be stopped and weddings would be prohibited in public places. Weddings will be permitted only at homes or courts with no more than 20 guests.

Movement for wedding guests shall be allowed with the production of marriage invitation card. No sound system, celebrations, catering of food will be allowed for the marriage ceremonies, said an order issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority.

Announcing the stringent curbs through a video message, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stated the decision was taken in order to curb the pandemic spread.

"Although, the cases have come down and the positivity rate has reduced from 35 percent on April 26 to around 23 percent now, strictness is needed," added the CM.

In the past 24 hours, as many as 13,336 new cases were registered in Delhi, down from over 20,000 recently. Besides, 273 deaths took place in the past 24 hours, down from over 400 till recently.

So far, Delhi has seen 1,323,567 COVID-19 cases and 19,344 deaths. At present there are 86,232 active cases.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) tweeted: "In the wake of revised guidelines issued today by the Government of Delhi, on extension of lockdown in Delhi for the containment of OVID-19, the Delhi Metro services on all its lines shall also remain suspended for passenger/essential services from May 10 till 05:00 hours of May 17."