Rajasthan, April 19:

The Rajasthan government on Sunday extended its weekend curfew for two weeks, even as the daily new cases crossed the 10,000 mark in Rajasthan for the first time since the pandemic began.

The decision came following multiple rounds of Covid review meetings chaired by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot over the weekend. The government has stopped short of calling it lockdown and termed the restrictions till May 3 as ‘Jan Anushashan Pakhwara’ (Public Discipline Fortnight).

During the fortnight, essential services such as state and central government offices, health services, mandis, groceries, dairies, ration shops etc. will remain open.

Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Udaipur alone accounted for over half of the 10,262 new cases reported on Sunday. Jaipur recorded 1,963 cases, followed by Jodhpur (1,695), Kota (1,116) and Udaipur (10,001). As many as 42 deaths were also recorded on Sunday, taking the total to 3,151 deaths. Total active cases in the state now stand at 67,135.

During the fortnight, essential services such as state and central government offices, health services, mandis, groceries, dairies, ration shops etc. will remain open.

Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Udaipur alone accounted for over half of the 10,262 new cases reported on Sunday. Jaipur recorded 1,963 cases, followed by Jodhpur (1,695), Kota (1,116) and Udaipur (10,001). As many as 42 deaths were also recorded on Sunday, taking the total to 3,151 deaths. Total active cases in the state now stand at 67,135.

He said that the states, including Rajasthan, continuously raising requests with the Centre points to a worrying situation. “Our Health Minister Raghu Sharma himself has been talking to the Union Health Minister in Delhi, yesterday and today, that you give oxygen. Oxygen jo banti thi humare yahan Bhiwadi ke andar, uska adhikar bhi le liye Bharat sarkaar ne (The oxygen we used to make here in Bhiwadi, the Centre has taken over control of that as well). Because they said they’ll control it in the entire country and distribute it. But when we saw the (allocation) figure, we became worried because Rajasthan ko naam matra ka allotment hua (Rajasthan received negligible allotment). We got some peace now after there was some allotment from Jamnagar in Gujarat.”

Health Secretary Siddharth Mahajan said: “We are trying everything (to ensure availability of oxygen). All our oxygen generation plants are working at full capacity and we are giving them electricity 24 hours. This includes the private ones in rural areas, which were getting power for 8 hours – they’ve now been shifted to 24 hour electricity. We have also diverted industrial oxygen towards hospitals.” He said that demand for oxygen for Covid patients has quadrupled in 13 days.

Mahajan also said that if the cases continue to grow at the current rate, the state might have 1.29 lakh active cases by the end of the month, of which 1.03 lakh will be mild, while around 4,000 will be severe, and the remaining 22,000 moderate.

“Last year, we could handle the number of active cases we had with our infrastructure. We have expanded our infrastructure since then. But everything has a limit. The number of beds we have added will reach saturation,” he said.

Currently, the case doubling time in Rajasthan is 45 days, compared to 52 days for India, and week specific positivity rate (for April 11-17) stands at 12.91 per cent for Rajasthan, while for India it was 14.40 per cent.

In the meeting, Dr Virendra Singh, President of Mahavir Jaipuria Rajasthan Hospital, Dr Sudhir Bhandari, Principal and Controller, SMS Medical College and Hospital, Jaipur, and Dr Raja Babu Panwar, VC of Rajasthan University of Health Sciences recommended a lockdown and strict measures in the state.

Dr Singh said that the figures point to “pralay ki aahat (indications of catastrophe). The first wave was just a trailer. Second wave always lasts longer and is more dangerous.” Dr Bhandari said that “(in the coming days), our agony will be like what EnglandSpain and Italy had until recently. Due to stiff lockdown, cases in England have reduced from 50-60,000 cases to just 1,200 today and zero deaths.”

He said that this is “the last chance to impose a lockdown, else the entire country will come to a standstill like Spain, Italy and America.” He said that they are developed nations, yet their infrastructure couldn’t handle the surge in cases.