NEW DELHI – Delhi adopted a week-long blockade on Monday as infections and deaths in India hit new highs and several local governments, including in the national capital, reported shortages of oxygen, beds and drugs.
India reported more than 272,000 cases and 1,619 deaths on Monday, as a second wave of coronavirus continued to spread across the country. The deteriorating situation has led British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to cancel a planned trip to the country next week, a decision announced Monday by the British and Indian governments. The UK has also said that most people who have traveled from India in the last 10 days will be denied entry from Friday.
Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister, announced a citywide blockade on Monday, starting at 22:00 and ending around 5:00 on April 26.
“Our health systems have reached their limit,” he said. “We have almost no intensive care beds. We are facing a huge lack of oxygen. ”
All essential services, including grocery stores, pharmacies and food delivery, will be allowed, he said. Wedding ceremonies will be limited to 50 people.
“If we do not block now, it could lead to a great tragedy,” Mr Kejriwal said.
Also on Monday, a court in northern Uttar Pradesh ordered blocking restrictions in the cities of Prayagraj, Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur Nagar and Gorakhpur until April 26. Government offices, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and grocery stores with more than three workers will be closed in these cities.
“We cannot avoid our constitutional duty to save innocent people from the pandemic,” the court said in its ruling.
Last week, the Maharashtra state government, which includes the Mumbai financial center, banned public meetings and ordered the closure of most companies for the next few weeks after hospitals there began to be overwhelmed. His prime minister he appealed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use the Indian Air Force to transport oxygen air cylinders to meet state demand.
India is also facing a shortage of experimental drug remdesivir.
Sunday, Hemant Soren, the chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, called on the central government to allow it to import 50,000 vials of medicine from Bangladesh, which the World Health Organization has not recommended for emergency use in Bangladesh.
“The precariousness of the situation will be evident from the fact that against the total order of 76,640 ampoules, Jharkhand received only 8,038 ampoules,” Mr Soren wrote in a letter to the central government.
The lack has led to disputes between opposition-led state governments and Mr Modi’s government, which controls the supply of much-needed medical oxygen and medicines.
On Sunday, Piyush Goyal, a minister in Mr Modi’s cabinet, called on states to keep oxygen demand “under control” and allow patients to use only “as much oxygen as they need”.
“In many places there is news that oxygen is being administered even when it is not needed,” he said. Opposition leaders criticized his remarks.
Mr Modi and his top lieutenants have also come under pressure to hold political rallies that bring together thousands of people, regardless of social distance, at a time when coronavirus cases in the country are spiraling out of control. .
On Saturday, Mr Modi praised the size of the crowd at one of his rallies in the eastern state of West Bengal, where elections are taking place. Yashwant Sinha, a former leader of Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, who is now the head of the United Democratic Alliance, said the remarks “could have come only from a person who is completely insensitive.”
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, he said on Sunday that he cancels his political rallies in the state.
“I would advise all political leaders to think deeply about the consequences of organizing large public rallies in the current conditions,” he said.