Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday ruled out the re-imposition of a lockdown upon the condition that people continue to wear masks and follow other COVID protocols amid a massive surge in cases, driven by the omicron variant of the coronavirus. 

“There is no plan to impose lockdown as of now; we won’t if people continue to wear masks,” Kejriwal said in a virtual address. “Our attempt is to impose minimum restrictions so livelihoods are not affected.”

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Kejriwal further said that the national captial is likely to record 22,000 COVID cases in today’s health bulletin. He said that while the rapid increase in case numbers is “concerning”, there is no need to be scared. 

“I am saying so after analysing (comparing) data from the last wave,” Kejriwal said. 

He also confirmed that the Delhi Disaster Management Agency (DDMA) is set to meet tomorrow to review the COVID situation in the national captial. 

Earlier today, the chief minister confirmed he had recovered from COVID-19 and that he is back in the service of the people. He had tested positive for the infection while campaigning for the upcoming Uttarakhand assembly elections on January 4 and had isolated himself at home.  

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“I am back in your service after recovering from Corona,” Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi. 

On Saturday, the city reported 20,181 new COVID-19 cases, rapidly closing in on the single-day record of 26,169 set during the peak of the second wave last year. 

The current surge is being driven by the omicron variant. The city has recorded 513 cases of the new ‘variant of concern’, of which 57 have recovered so far.