How Did Delhi Bring Down Its COVID Count From 28,000 Cases To Little Over 1000?

Hospitals overflooded with patients. Families floating in a cesspool of grief. City locked in. Nearly every single mortal soul locked in the comfort or the lack of any in their homes. Authorities holding their heads with their hands in sheer helplessness. And on top of that, a sheer dearth in oxygen producing plants, vaccines and even COVID-fighting medicines. Delhi, until a few weeks ago, was nightmare. Peril nightmare! The city that usually bustles with a smile was reduced to a venue hunted by macabre evil. It was ridiculous and haunting to note the sheer queue of bodies awaiting their final journey as funeral grounds were overloaded. Then came the lockdown and its extension.

And today, we find a bit of positive news that is sure to cheer up even the sternest of Delhi’s critics. So what is it and how did it come about?

Delhi today is recording cases that measure just a little over 1,000 while nearly a month ago, its COVID outburst was vehemently dangerous as around 28,000 cases. A transformation aided by watchful resistance against the treacherous virus marked by strict adherence to lockdown measures has made way for a change that’s good for just about everybody.

But let’s recollect the time where Delhi went under a complete lockdown starting April 19. At that time, the cases were surging. It was perhaps the toughest phase the city had encountered, upto that point of struggle against Coronavirus.

But where Delhi succeeded was in the 42-day period of strict observance of a city-wide lockdown. And mind you, Delhi is no tiny city. Almost five Finnish cities put together make for one New Delhi. It’s bigger than most English county regions for it spreads across to various destinations that are counted under the Delhi National Capital Region.

Therefore, to practice a sense of conservation in order to look after a large mass of geography called for absolute lockdown whether it came to shops and malls, community centres or libraries, cinemas or entertainment arcades.

And the results are there for all to see.

Also Read: France Has Doubled Its COVID Aid To India!

This great turnaround is reflected through pure stats, with Hindustan Times publishing:

On April 19, the cumulative cases and deaths in Delhi stood at 877,146 and 12,361 respectively. On May 30, a day before partial easing of the curbs began, total confirmed cases and deaths were logged at 1,425,592 and 24,151 respectively, according to figures from health bulletins. During this period, the national capital recorded a total of 548,446 Covid-19 positive cases and 11,790 deaths.

That said, the World Health Organisation calls for the positivity rate to come down by 5 per cent. And in ensuring the cases do not surge back again to dangerous levels, credit must be duly extended to the police force in India’s capital that has worked tirelessly around the clock to ensure proper adherence to social distancing norms.

Facets like- proper sanitisation, wearing of face mask in public, ensuring motorists wear the mask even inside the car (or face the ire of the cops), avoidance of spitting at public places have been strictly monitored with the cops overseeing the situation in a way that nobody cuts the corners.

What further helped was the fact that the metro rail services were suspended. After all, it’s the common touch point aiding in mass movement of a people from a point of commute to another.

But is that all? Nope. No pubic weddings. Marriages, such an integral part of Indian culture, not just the city of Delhi, are taking place at ones own residence.

With these collective measures working well in tandem, we now have a Delhi that may not have seen an absolute elimination of the virus or cases but is in a far better shape that it was weeks before. Full credit to just about everybody!