Slams Drop in Testing; No Lockdown in Maharashtra Again
AGENCIES / NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court today termed the Corona situation in Delhi “horrendous” as it slammed the fall in testing compared to cities such as Mumbai amid a rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Capital.
Citing media reports on how bodies lie in hospitals stacked against each other, the Supreme Court said lack of beds in hospitals was an issue of concern. The court, during a suo motu hearing on treatment of patients and handling of dead bodies, said: “Patients are crying with pain and there is nobody to attend. Beds will go vacant if this is how patients are treated in your hospitals. Why has the testing gone down in Delhi while it has gone up in Mumbai and other places?” The court added that the handling of dead bodies reflected a sorry state of affairs and in many cases, patients’ families aren’t even informed about deaths and haven’t been able to attend the last rites too in some cases.
“Covid-19 patients are treated worse than animals. In one case, a dead body was found in garbage,” the bench headed by justice Ashok Bhushan remarked.
The state of Delhi came in for heavy criticism from the bench, with the court pointing out the conditions in hospitals as well the reduced testing for Covid-19. The top court also noted that patients are running from pillar to post to get themselves admitted even though a large number of beds in government hospitals are lying vacant.
Taking note of a media report, the court highlighted how dead bodies of Covid-19 patients were lying unattended in the lobby and waiting area of Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital.
Reminding states, the top court said that governments are duty bound to ensure adequate infrastructure in hospitals and also that Covid-19 patients are attended to by health workers.
Meanwhile, Mumbai faces a whopping 30 per cent staff crunch of ward boys and nurses in civic-run hospitals, the Maharashtra government has told the Centre, asking Union health minister Harsh Vardhan intervene as the number of cases continue to surge.
Even as the financial capital keeps adding a record number of deaths, key data about bed availability has gone missing from the BMC’s website, which was launched with much fanfare. The highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 94,041 followed by Tamil Nadu at 36,841, Delhi at 32,810, Gujarat at 21,521, UP at 11,610, Rajasthan at 11,600 and MP at 10,049 according to the ministry’s data updated yesterday. Of the 8,102 fatalities in total, Maharashtra tops the tally with 3,438 deaths followed by Gujarat (1,347), Delhi (984), Madhya Pradesh (427), West Bengal (432), Tamil Nadu (326), Uttar Pradesh (321), Rajasthan (259) and Telangana (156). The death toll reached 78 in Andhra Pradesh, 69 in Karnataka and 55 in Punjab.