Lockdown helped Delhi govt strengthen health infrastructure: Manish Sisodia

The complete lockdown has helped the Delhi government in strengthening the city's health infrastructure to effectively battle COVID-19, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. Addressing the "Cities Against COVID19 - Global Summit 2020" via video conference on Tuesday, he mentioned key measures adopted by the Delhi government to contain the spread of the dreaded virus.

"As Delhi got its first COVID 19 positive case on March 2, it was very important to curb the spread of the disease. The total lockdown enabled us to spread awareness about the virus among the citizens and strengthen our health infrastructure to effectively battle the disease," he said.

The deputy chief minister said the government has adequate medical facilities to deal with coronavirus cases. He said the Delhi government's relief teams have been working round the clock to provide meals to almost a million people twice a day.

"Delhi plans to restore economic activity safely in a phased manner," the deputy chief minister said.

Sisodia, who is also the Education Minister, said the new-age classroom technology trends adopted by schools have given students enhanced learning experience.

"What gives me the most satisfaction is our adoption of various new education initiatives during the lockdown to minimise the academic damage due to loss of learning time. We were able to provide online learning modules to 9,00,000 students from kindergarten to grade 12," he said.

Sisodia expressed pleasure to be a part of the summit and said it was an insightful experience.

"Met with leaders of various cities across the world to learn from their experiences in fighting COVID-19 at the CAC Global Summit 2020 by the Seoul government. The overwhelming challenge posed by corona (virus) offers great opportunities for us to come together and help each other," he tweeted.

The summit was attended by mayors and experts from 21 cities, including Moscow, Jakarta, Istanbul, Budapest, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Vancouver and Chongqing.