Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday beseeched the public to stay indoors after 26 members of a family tested positive for the coronavirus in one of the containment zones of the Capital.
“In some containment zones, we are seeing that some people are still roaming outside their houses and visiting neighbours,” Kejriwal said. “In one such zone in Jahangirpuri, 26 people of the same family, who live in the same area, have tested positive. They had been visiting each other even when the area was declared a containment zone,” he added.
Requesting people to abide by the restrictions of the lockdown, the chief minister said: “People who think this is not going to happen to them are wrong. The coronavirus doesn’t distinguish between the rich and poor. Whether you get infected or not will depend on your behaviour.”
The health authorities had taken samples of 60 persons in the Jahangirpuri area as part of the government’s efforts to undertake wider community testing in infection hotspots. Out of these, 31 tested positive, including 26 cases from the same family, according to The Indian Express.
Among the 31 positive cases, 18 are women, while 12 are men. A six-year-old boy also tested positive. The remaining 12 persons belong to the age group of 10 to 19 years.
“While 26 are from the same family, the other five who tested positive live in the same lane in Jahangirpuri,” an unidentified health official told the newspaper. “The area is highly congested and all of them have been visiting each other even during containment orders. So 50% cent of the samples collected from the area have come out positive,” the official added.
North Delhi District Magistrate Deepak Shinde told ANI that the 26 members of the family are either related to an old woman who succumbed to Covid-19, or had visited her house from where they contracted the virus. “They have now been shifted to the quarantine centre in Narela since they are not showing any symptoms,” he added.
On Saturday, the Delhi government increased the number of containment zones in the city from 68 to 76.
India’s Covid-19 tally as of Sunday morning stood at 15,712 patients, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Of these, 12,974 people are being treated while 507 have died. As many as 2,230 people have recovered so far. Delhi has reported 1,893 coronavirus cases, with 42 deaths as of now, according to the health ministry.
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