On Sunday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah categorically denied that coronavirus had reached the community transmission stage in the national capital and also refuted the claim of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who had stated that Delhi will record at least 5.5 lakh coronavirus cases by July-end.
Speaking to ANI, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the unverified claims made by the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi that Delhi will see more than 5 lakh coronavirus cases only resulted in the fear in the minds of the people, who started an exodus from the national capital.
“Around the second week of June, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that by July 31 there will be 5.5 lakh persons infected with the virus. He said that there will be no place left, no beds left and the situation will be difficult. This created a lot of fear in the minds of people in Delhi,” Home Minister Amit Shah said in an interview.
“I do not want to go into whether the estimate was right or wrong. But a situation of fear arose and some people started mulling an exodus (out of Delhi),” he added.
No community transmission in Delhi: Home Minister
Clarifying that there was no community transmission in the national capital, Home Minister Amit Shah said that he had already talked to three senior-most officials – Dr. Paul (from Niti Aayog), ICMR chief Dr. Bhargava and Dr. Guleria (AIIMS New Delhi Director), who assured him that there was no such transmission in the national capital.
“This situation has not come to Delhi. Such a situation appeared because of the total tests done, earlier 30 percent turned out to be positive and that was happening because tests were done at the last moment. Now that we have started doing 20,000 tests on average, this condition is not there. I have held technical discussions on this…today this situation is not there in Delhi. There is no need to fear,” the Home Minister said.
On June 9, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had claimed that the cases in Delhi would rise to 2.5 lakh by July 15 and the government would require 33,000 beds. He had also said that there will be 5.5 lakh cases in the national capital by July-end.
“I can say now with confidence that situation of 5.5 lakh cases will not come on July 31,” Shah said on Sunday.
Prime Minister himself intervened to help Delhi govt: HM Amit Shah
Home Minister Amit Shah also said that after Manish Sisodia made such claims, Prime Minister Modi had himself had asked the Home Ministry to take the responsibility of Delhi, after Delhi government gave up its fight against coronavirus pandemic.
“But after remarks of Manish ji, I felt that the central government should not stay idle. Modi ji has accountability towards the country. PM also told me that the Home Ministry should take the initiative to move forward and help the Delhi government. We are helping Delhi government but for coordination, central government called a meeting,” he said.
#WATCH After Manish Sisodia’s statement (of 5.5 lakh cases by July-end), PM also asked me, Home Ministry, to help Delhi Govt. Soon after, a coordination meeting was called and a number of decisions, including testing of all individuals in containment zones, were taken: Amit Shah pic.twitter.com/V02XBgciRE
— ANI (@ANI) June 28, 2020
The Home Minister added, “We will be in good condition (By July 31st) because we have laid stress on preventive steps including more tests and contact tracing”.
The Union government had stepped in after the spike of coronavirus cases in the national capital. Soon, Home Minister Amit Shah took the charge and held a series meetings to tackle the coronavirus epidemic in the national capital after the Delhi government failed to check the spread of the Chinese pandemic.
