Delhi's moving towards herd immunity, ready to restart Metro, says Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said Delhi is moving towards “herd immunity”, adding that in his assessment at least one-third of its population had developed antibodies against Coronavirus.

In an exclusive interview with ET, Kejriwal also said his main objective now was to ensure there are no more lockdowns in Delhi. He also felt the city was prepared to restart Metro services.

Taking a cue from a Sero survey conducted across 11 districts in Delhi, Kejriwal told ET: “This survey, which showed almost 24% people had antibodies against Covid19, was conducted between June 27 and July 10. So this has captured antibodies generated 15 days before that, which is a picture of June 10. If it was almost 24% early June, it must have crossed 30-35%. Whether we have achieved herd immunity or not, only experts can say. But we are moving towards herd immunity.”


Kejriwal attributed the downward trend to his three-pronged strategy – home isolation, testing and significantly increasing oxygen-supported beds. He said home isolation was the most significant takeaway from the Delhi Model.

According to Kejriwal, migrant labourers were returning. “Earlier, they left as numbers in Delhi were rising, now they are returning as numbers in their native states are rising.”

On resuming metro services, the CM said: “I feel Delhi is ready to open its Metro seeing the number of cases today. We will talk to the Centre.”