'No community transmission in Delhi; Centre just helping with coordination'

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that based on the Central government's analysis of the COVID-19 situation, there is no community transmission of the disease in the Capital and that there is nothing for people to worry or panic about in Delhi.

Speaking in an interview with a wire service, Shah also reiterated that it was the Delhi government that was taking the lead in tackling the pandemic and that the Centre had merely stepped in to coordinate efforts, given the city's unique governance structure.

Shah said, "The Delhi government, central government and MCD governments - all have a stake in governing the Capital and Centre came in only to ensure that the coordination between the three is strengthened so that welfare of the people is taken care of in these times."

The Home Minister added that Delhi's situation with respect to the pandemic was under control now and that the initial estimates of the city recording 5.5 lakh cases by the end of July would not be proven true. "I can say with confidence that the figure of 5.5 lakh will not be reached by July 31," he said. After Shah's comments, Sisodia said, "We are hopeful that the situation will improve in the coming weeks and will certainly not be as bleak as it looked in the first week of June when domain experts predicted 5.5 lakh cases in Delhi by July 31."

Shah said that when Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had presented estimated numbers early in June, predicting 5.5 lakh cases here by the end of next month, there was panic among the residents.

"There was an atmosphere of fear... managing the Covid situation in Delhi is the job of Delhi government. But after Sisodia's statement, I felt the centre needed to step in," he said, adding that the Centre had many more resources in terms of information and data that has now been supplied to the Delhi government to help the city in its battle against the virus.

He said, "The overall national data in terms of COVID-19 and global data available with experts like ICMR chief Dr Bhargava, Dr Gulleria and Dr VK Paul was instrumental in informing the strategy in Delhi and all we did was consolidate these resources so that a better strategy can be formed here." Shah also said that based on detailed conversations with the abovementioned experts, it could be concluded that Delhi is not in community transmission.

In the interview, the Home Minister also clarified that there was no such tussle in decision making as perceived with respect to orders on home isolation or restricting treatment only for Delhiites.

He said, "There is no politics. We should not focus on small things. There is no tussle over the situation between Centre and state in Delhi. They told us what they were lacking, it was provided. The Centre is getting full cooperation from the Kejriwal government. In politics, there will be some political bickering. But these will not impact decisions."