Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain on Monday ruled out the possibility of any more lockdowns to curb the rapid increase of coronavirus cases in the national capital.

He told reporters on Monday: “The lockdown was a learning exercise. What we learnt is that the benefits of a lockdown can be obtained simply by wearing masks. Despite the lockdown, cases increased from a few hundred to thousands in the country. I don’t think it can be contained by a lockdown.”

Daily cases crossed 8,000 here last week. Jain attributed some of these cases to patients from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

“The month on month comparison of deaths with previous years does not show an increase in deaths this year. If a person is ill, and he also has Covid then his death is attributed to the virus. The percentage of deaths is around 1 per cent,” he said.

Jain also claimed that the third wave of the pandemic in Delhi had peaked.

The positivity rate for Saturday was 15.3 per cent, the highest in 140 days.

However, Jain said that he expected it to subside now as the crowds of Diwali shoppers have subsided.