NEW DELHI – Delhi decided on a week-long lockdown across the city on Monday as infections and deaths in India hit new daily records and several local governments, including those in the state 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 the coronavirus spread across the country. The worsening situation has led UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to cancel a planned trip to the country next week, a decision the UK and Indian governments announced on Monday.
Arvind Kejriwal, the prime minister of Delhi, announced a city-wide lockdown on Monday, starting at 10 p.m. and ending at around 5 a.m. on April 26.
“Our health systems have reached their limits,” he said. “We have almost no more intensive care beds. We have a great lack of oxygen. “
Only essential services, including grocery stores, pharmacies and grocery delivery, are allowed, he said. Wedding ceremonies are limited to 50 people.
“If we don’t put up a barrier now, it could lead to a major tragedy,” said Kejriwal.
Last week, the state government of Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, banned public gatherings and ordered most businesses to close for the next few weeks after hospitals there became overwhelmed. Its Prime Minister appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use the Indian Air Force to ventilate oxygen bottles to meet state demand.
India is also facing a shortage of the experimental drug remdesivir.
On Sunday, Hemant Soren, the prime minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, asked the central government to allow him to import 50,000 vials of the medicine, which the World Health Organization did not recommend, from Bangladesh in case of emergency.
“The uncertainty of the situation is evident from the fact that Jharkhand only received 8,038 vials against the total order of 76,640 vials,” Soren said in a letter to the central government.
The shortage has sparked 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, urged states to keep oxygen demands “under control” and allow patients to only “use as much oxygen as they need”.
“There is news in many places that oxygen is being given even when it is not needed,” he said. Opposition leaders criticized his statements.
