New Delhi enters a week of lockdown amid Covid-19 surge and fears over new variant

Twenty million residents of the city will now face restrictions with only essential services permitted

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  People crowd at a bus station to leave for their native places hours before a week-long lockdown in New Delhi, India comes into effect. AFP

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  People crowd at a bus station before a week-long lockdown ordered by the Delhi government comes into effect. AFP

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  A traffic jam in New Delhi before a week-long curfew takes effect in the Indian capital. EPA

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  A police officer tries to control a crowd outside a wine store after the Delhi government ordered a lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus in the Indian capital. Reuters

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  People crowd onto buses leaving New Delhi as the Indian capital goes into a week-long lockdown. AFP

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  Workers take rest in between cremating Covid-19 victims in New Delhi, which has had an explosive surge in coronavirus cases. AP Photo

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  Migrant workers leave for their villages from a bus terminal in New Delhi. AP Photo

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  Migrant workers arrive at a bus station to return to their villages after Delhi government ordered a lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Reuters

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  Indian migrant workers wait for buses to leave New Delhi. AP Photo

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  Relatives mourn during the last rites of a Covid-19 victim at a crematorium in New Delhi, India. EPA

India's capital New Delhi will impose a week-long lockdown from Monday night, officials said, as the megacity struggles to contain a huge surge in Covid-19 cases with hospitals running out of beds and oxygen supplies low.

The country of 1.3 billion people reported a record high of 273,810 new infections on Monday – the fifth consecutive day of more than 200,000 cases.

In New Delhi – the worst-hit city in India – 25,500 new cases were reported on Sunday, with almost one third of those tested returning positive coronavirus results.

"Delhi's health system is at a tipping point. The Covid-19 situation is pretty critical," the city's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a televised address.

"If we don't impose a lockdown now, we will be looking at a bigger disaster. From tonight there will be a lockdown until next Monday."

Mr Kejriwal said businesses would be shut and movement around the northern city of 20 million limited to essential services.

"The lockdown doesn't end the pandemic but just slows it. We will use this week-long lockdown to improve our healthcare," he said.

The healthcare system, he said, was under severe strain and had reached its limit.

The restrictions followed similar measures in other parts of India, including in the western state of Maharashtra, home to financial capital Mumbai, and the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi avoided wearing a mask at a campaign rally on Saturday. "I've never seen such huge crowds," Mr Modi exclaimed at the event in West Bengal.

That night he said "India had defeated Covid last year and India can do it again" after an online meeting with health officials, who spoke of critical shortages of drugs, vaccines and other supplies in a nation that has reported a string of new daily records in the past two weeks.

Double mutation fear 

News of Delhi's lockdown comes after fears that a new variant of Covid-19, which has a so-called double mutation, is thought to be fuelling the current wave of cases.

India has reported more than 14.5 million coronavirus cases so far and deaths have exceeded 175,600.

“This is a variant of interest we are following,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organisation’s technical lead officer on Covid, told reporters on Friday.

“Having two of these mutations, which have been seen in other variants around the world, are concerning.”

She said that there was a similarity with mutations that increase transmission as well as reduce neutralisation, possibly stunting the ability of vaccines to curb them.

The new strain underscores the insidious nature of viruses and threatens to thwart containment efforts in India, despite measures such as the world’s largest lockdown last year.

An exploding outbreak in India risks undoing a hard-won victory over the pathogen for others, too, especially as this strain has now jumped to at least 10 other countries.

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  Patients sit on bed waiting to be moved to a hospital, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease in Ahmedabad, India. Reuters

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  A health worker takes a swab sample to test for Covid-19 at a drive-through testing facility at GMDC ground in Ahmedabad, India. AP Photo

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  People pray while attending a funeral service for a Covid-19 fatality at a burial ground in New Delhi, India. Bloomberg

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  A patient with breathing problem is helped to walk towards an ambulance as he is being shifted to a hospital in Ahmedabad, India. Reuters

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  Migrant workers queue up to enter a railway station to leave the city ahead of a lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19 in Mumbai, India. Getty Images

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  Muslims wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus wait to break fast on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan at the Jama Mosque, in New Delhi, India. AP Photo