New Delhi, Mar 27 (IANS): Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday denied the possibility of lockdown in the city despite the surge in the Covid-19 cases as he said that lockdown is not a solution and we'll have to learn to live with it.

He said, "There is no possibility of lockdown. There has already been a lockdown and there was a logic behind it. At that time, no one knew how the virus spreads. It was then said that there is a 14-day cycle from being infected to ending the infection. Then the expert said that if all the activities are locked for 21 days, the virus will stop spreading. Even then the lockdown kept extending but despite this, the coronavirus spread did not stop. I think lockdown is not a solution."

"Delhi has been witnessing fewer cases than earlier but the cases are increasing once again. The Delhi government has increased the testing and 85,000-90,000 tests are being conducted every day, which is 5 per cent higher than the national average," he added. He further claimed that the health department is also doing contact tracing.

Talking about the availability of the beds in the hospitals for Covid-19 patients, he said, Hospitals have sufficient number of beds as of now. Only 20 per cent beds are occupied as of now. We are monitoring the situation and if needed we will increase the number of beds."

The national capital reported 1,534 new cases, 971 recoveries and nine deaths in last 24 hours till Friday evening taking the total tally to 6,54,276 including 6,051 active cases and 6,37,238 total recoveries while the death toll touched 10,987.