The governments in Delhi and Haryana on Sunday decided to extend their coronavirus lockdowns by a further one week. Punjab will extend its lockdown till May 31.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that while the daily rise in new coronavirus cases in the city was witnessing a downward trend, the restrictions would be extended till 5 am on May 24, ANI reported.

“We are seeing good recovery, coronavirus cases have been on a decline,” Kejriwal said. “But we don’t want to lose the gain that we have made in the last few days.”

Amid a massive surge in coronavirus cases in the city, the lockdown was first imposed in the national Capital on April 19. On May 9, Kejriwal had announced the last extension in restrictions, and had decided to shut Delhi Metro operations as well.

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Meanwhile, new cases have reduced significantly in the city since logging over 28,000 cases in a day in mid-April. On Sunday, Delhi reported 6,456 new cases, marginally higher than Saturday’s tally of 6,430. The number of tests went up by more than 5,000 since Saturday. The positivity rate in Delhi stood at 10.40% on Sunday.

In neighbouring Haryana too, Health Minister Anil Vij said the lockdown would be extended. This is the third extension of lockdown in the state since the restrictions were first put in place on May 3.

On Saturday, Haryana reported 9,676 new cases of coronavirus, and 144 deaths. The number of active cases in the state stood at 95,946. On Saturday, Vij had also declared post-Covid complication Mucormycosis or “black fungus” as a notified disease. Under the new orders, doctors will report new “black fungus” cases to chief medical officer at each district.

In Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said that the existing restrictions would be extended till May 31, ANI reported.

The state recorded 6,867 new cases and 217 deaths on Saturday, taking the total tally since the pandemic outbreak in 2020 to 4.9 lakh. The overall toll is 11,693.