'Delhi Metro services must commence at 25-33% capacity', says AIIMS COVID Taskforce chief

As COVID-19 lockdown restrictions begin to relax in the national capital, Dr Naveet Wig, chairman of AIIMS COVID Taskforce on Sunday suggested against the resumption of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). He recommended that the metro should run at 33% occupancy in its initial weeks of operation and not at 50% as directed by the government. He also stressed maintaining a safe number of ICU beds and harmonising different units of the health system to tackle the third wave of Coronavirus.

On being asked how Delhi should lift its lockdown restrictions, Wig said, "The lockdown restrictions should be lifted but it should be a slow transition. We have to open very slowly. Metro should take some time to start. It should not start immediately. In the first few weeks, we should experiment at 25 per cent or 33 per cent occupancy. The virus cannot be eradicated."

"If we have learned our lessons from the first two waves, then we can avoid the third wave. In the first wave, we had the top-down approach. We did lockdown and tried to educate the community, sensitise the health system and thus we were able to handle it," he said.

"In the second wave, it was the bottom-up approach. All districts, sub-districts and villages were made to do their job. Now it is time to be practical. Now we have to check if we have 50 per cent of ICU beds vacant in each district," he added.

Wig said the city has to harmonise public health centres, wellness clinics, sub-centres to take care of testing, tracking and quarantining. He stressed gearing up ambulance services at district levels and also urged people to use double masks with clean masks.

Delhi Unlock plan

Only half of Delhi Metro's available trains will be in service at a frequency of five to fifteen minutes on Monday when the rapid transport system resumes operation with 50 per cent seating capacity in view of improving the COVID-19 situation.

The number of trains in service will be increased in a graded manner, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said on Saturday. Apart from allowing metro trains to operate with half its capacity, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced various relaxations, including permitting shops in markets and malls to reopen on an odd-even basis from June 7. He said the COVID-19 situation has been gradually improving, in view of which the process of unlocking was started last week.

Delhi recorded 414 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest in over two-and-a-half months, and 60 fatalities on Saturday. The positivity rate has dipped to 0.53 per cent, according to health department data.