Heeding her ‘doctor’s advice’, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will fly out of Delhi on Friday, owing to the deteriorating levels of air pollution and poor air quality in the national capital which had seemed to aggravated her chest infection.
According to a Congress functionary privy to the developments as reported by Indian Express, Sonia Gandhi has been advised by her doctors to move to a warmer place until the air pollution in Delhi is back to normal levels. Two places—the outskirts of Chennai and Goa—have been identified for this purpose, he reportedly said.
Gandhi will be accompanied either of Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi during her stay out of Delhi. The Congress President had made a brief appearance at the Indira Gandhi Memorial to pay homage to the former Prime Minister on her 103rd birth anniversary. Notably, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi are already vacationing in Shimla post the tiring loss in Bihar Assembly Elections.
Sonia Gandhi was admitted to hospital in July and subsequently flown to the US for a routine check-up
Earlier in July, Gandhi was admitted to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi following a meeting of the party’s Rajya Sabha members headed by her. She has been under heavy medication since her discharge from hospital in August, the functionary informed.
Sonia Gandhi, 73, had in September flown to the United States for her routine medical check-up. She was accompanied by her son Rahul Gandhi during her visit to America. The duo had missed the monsoon session of Parliament from September 14 to 23.
Prior leaving for the United States, Gandhi had made several internal changes in the Congress party, reconstituted the Congress Working Committee(CWC) and her team of office bearers, and established a special panel to assist her in organisational and operational matters.
Sonia Gandhi’s departure from Delhi comes at a time when there is internal churning about the recent poll debacle in Bihar and unimpressive performance in by-polls in several states. A group of 23 dissidents had also signed a letter to the party chief earlier in August, demanding organisational revamp, and the reckoning of the party’s multiple electoral defeats.
Air quality index of Delhi continues to deteriorate amidst the increasing number of coronavirus cases
Delhi’s air quality continues to remain poor as the city’s pollution due to stubble burning in the surrounding region had increased by over 20 per cent. The government agencies had warned that the air quality may dip to the “very poor” category on Friday.
Delhi’s 24-hour average air quality index(AQI) was recorded at 283. It was 211 on Wednesday and 171 on Tuesday. An AQI between zero to 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.
The deteriorating air quality also seems to have played a part in aggravating the city’s COVID-19 outbreak, a disease involving grave respiratory complications. Delhi is witnessing an inexorable surge in the coronavirus cases since the end of last month when, October 28, the daily number of fresh cases crossed the mark 5,000-mark and breached the 8,000-mark for the first time.
