‘Together, We’ll Win’: Kejriwal Addresses C40 Leaders on COVID-19

Kejriwal said the economic fallout of the lockdown has disproportionately impacted the city’s poor.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

(Photo Courtesy: ANI)

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday, 27 March, attended a global meet of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group to discuss the coronavirus outbreak where he spoke about the steps taken in the national capital to control the spread of the pandemic.

“This is a crisis of unprecedented scale and we are committed to learn and collaborate with leaders across the world. Together, we will win,” Kejriwal said at the meeting held through video conferencing, according to a statement, PTI reported.

Representing Delhi and India at the meet,the chief minister said the national capital has aggressively pursued the policy of identifying contacts of coronavirus-affected patients and isolating them, the statement said.

Kejriwal was joined by top leaders from around the world, such as mayors of Los Angeles (Eric Garcetti), Seoul (Won-soon Park), Paris (Anne Hidalgo), Milan (Guiseppa Sala), Istanbul (Ekrem Imamoglu) and Rome (Virginia Raggi), among the 45 mayors who were present at the meet.

He said the economic fallout of the lockdown has disproportionately impacted the city’s poor, especially migrant workers from across the country who live in Delhi.

The CM also said the Delhi government is paying Rs 5,000 to every construction worker as sustenance allowance.

Earlier, Kejriwal had said that the state government will provide meals to 325 schools, and feed over four lakh people from Saturday. “There are a total of 39 coronavirus positive cases in Delhi today. Twenty-nine of them had come from outside and were kept in quarantine and 10 of these are cases of local transmission,” he said, while briefing the media.

Kejriwal also emphasised on how the government has a plan ready for tackling coronavirus if the cases reported every day keep increasing. “If every day, around 500 come, or if every day there are 1000 cases, what are the preparations taken? If there are 100 cases, the kind of facility we have, is enough. We are evaluating how many isolation beds, ventilators, and the number of tests we will need accordingly,” he added.

(With inputs from PTI.)