NEW DELHI, Mar 24: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced that his government would give Rs 5,000 to each construction worker in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and constituted a five-member doctors’ panel to prepare a plan to deal with situation if the national capital enters stage 3 of COVID-19.
Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said that the livelihood of construction workers has been affected due to coronavirus as the city has gone under lockdown since Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation at 8 pm and announced a 21-day countrywide lockdown from midnight.
According to an official, the Delhi government’s move will benefit around 46,000 construction workers who are registered with the Construction Workers Welfare Board Fund.
Kejriwal said no new case of coronavirus has been reported in Delhi in the past 40 hours, and the earlier number of virus-infected patients has also gone down from 30 to 23.
He said it was good that some patients have recovered but cautioned about a long battle ahead against the deadly virus.
He appealed to the people to help each other in these difficult times.
He said people should not discriminate against and harass those professionals such as doctors, nurses, pilots and air hostesses who are extending help in this fight against the virus.
Kejriwal said he has received complaints in many places in Delhi that these great people are facing discrimination, which is unacceptable.
“If anyone is affected by coronavirus, it is our responsibility to do their treatment so that they can recover fast but if they are not affected then they should not face any kind of discrimination,” he said.
Talking about the five-member panel of doctors, Kejriwal said that it has been asked to submit its report within 24 hours.
“From today, we have started preparation to build a foolproof health system to combat the situation if ever we get into stage three of this pandemic. Under senior doctor Sareen, I have constituted a team which will make all the preparations and submit me a report within 24 hours,” he said.
“We do not want to get into stage three but we have to be fully prepared in terms of medical support,” he CM said.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyender Jain and Police Commissioner S N Srivastava met Lt Governor Anil Baijal and discussed measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.
In his earlier tweet, the chief minister said that the biggest challenge now is to not let the situation go out of control.
At the press conference, Kejriwal said that this is an alarming situation worldwide that is why Delhi government has imposed such tough restrictions like lockdown and curfew.
He said his government is working to ensure that not a single person in Delhi should suffer from hunger due to lockdown.
“We have already started distributing food in all the night shelters of Delhi, where any person can come and eat.
“We have witnessed that the number of people is increasing, therefore, we have also decided to increase the number of such night shelters and we will also increase food distribution,” he said. (PTI)
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