Agencies

'Worse May Happen in Dec': Worried Over Surge in Covid-19 Cases, SC Seeks Status Report from States
23-November-2020

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and all states to file within two days status reports detailing steps taken to deal with the current COVID-19 situation, noting that the pandemic has worsened in places like Delhi and Gujarat. The court said the situation is going out of control in Gujarat. The court also sounded alarm for the Covid-19 situation ahead - "worse things may happen in December if states are not well prepared."

The apex court also said the situation in the national capital had worsened over the last two weeks. You file a status report on what steps have been taken, a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan told Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, who was appearing for Delhi government. The bench, also comprising Justices R S Reddy and M R Shah, said that all efforts shall be made by the Centre and the states to mitigate the situation and to deal with the rising number of COVID-19 cases. The top court, which was hearing a matter in which it had taken cognisance regarding proper treatment of COVID-19 patients and dignified handling of bodies in hospitals, has posted the matter for hearing on November 27.

It asked the Delhi government to provide details on how it was managing the crisis. "How are hospitals treating patients? Are their enough beds?," said SC, and asked the AAP government to file a latest status report on the management of patients. The Delhi government said it has reserved beds for Covid-19 patients in all hospitals.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta agreed with the apex court's response and said Delhi needed to "do a lot more" to control the situation. He said the Union Home Minister had held a meeting on the capital's Covid-19 response on November 13, whereby various directives had been issued.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday had asked Delhi's AAP government if it could explain to those who had lost their near and dear ones to COVID-19 in the last 18 days why the administration did not take steps when cases were spiralling in the city. It also asked the government to look at the situation with a "magnifying glass". Pulling up the Delhi government, a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad asked why it waited till the court intervened to take steps such as reducing the number of people attending weddings to 50 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"You (Delhi government) saw from November 1 which way the wind was blowing. But you turn turtle now because we asked you some questions. The bell should have rung loud and clear when the numbers were spiralling. Why did you not wake up when you saw the situation was deteriorating? "Why did we have to shake you out of your slumber on November 11? What did you do from November 1 till November 11? Why did you wait 18 days (till November 18) to take a decision. Do you know how many lives were lost during this period? Can you explain it to those who lost their near and dear ones," the bench had asked.

On the implementation of social distancing norms, prevention of spitting and wearing of masks, the court had not been satisfied with the monitoring being done by the Delhi government in some districts where COVID-19 numbers were high.

The bench had also said the fines being imposed -- Rs 500 for first violation and Rs 1,000 for every subsequent violation -- did not appear to be a deterrent. It had said there appeared to be substantial disparity in monitoring and imposition of fines in certain districts as compared to others.

Delhi recorded 6,746 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sunday and a positivity rate of 12.29 per cent while 121 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 8,391, authorities said.

These fresh cases came out of the 54,893 tests conducted on Saturday, including 23,433 RT-PCR tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department. On Friday, authorities had said 23,507 RT-PCR tests, the highest till date, were conducted a day before. The highest single-day spike till date here -- 8,593 cases -- was recorded on November 11 when 85 fatalities were recorded. As many as 121 fatalities were recorded on Sunday.

This is the fifth time in the last 11 days that the daily number of deaths has crossed the 100-mark. Authorities reported 111 deaths on Saturday, 118 on Friday, 131 on November 18, the highest till date, and 104 fatalities on November 12. The active cases tally on Sunday stood at 40,212 as compared to 39,741 on Saturday.