NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday closed the proceedings in a batch of pleas relating to the Covid-19 situation in the city, including testings and infrastructure. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said, “we will close the proceedings with liberty to parties to approach the court in case of any grievance”.
In 2021, the high court, on its own, revived a disposed of petition filed in 2020 by advocate Rakesh Malhotra related to Covid-19 testings and infrastructure. While reviving the matter, the high court noted that the virus has raised its ‘ugly head’ once again and the pandemic is raging with much greater intensity, and “it is evident that the healthcare infrastructure is at the stage of imminent collapse”.
Initially, when Malhotra filed the petition in 2020, it had sought for increasing the Covid-19 testing numbers in the national capital and getting speedy results. Later, the ambit of the proceedings was widened and the court continued to monitor how authorities tackled the pandemic, especially during the second wave of Covid-19 last year.
The high court had sought the Centre’s stand on setting up a buffer stock of liquid medical oxygen in the national capital in case of another wave even as the AAP government submitted that it has 419 metric tonnes of it.
5-day free Covid vaccination camp inaugurated at Jamia Millia Islamia
New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) Vice Chancellor Professor Najma Akhtar inaugurated a five-day free Covid vaccination camp on Tuesday and urged all adults to get themselves inoculated. The camp titled ‘Covid Vaccination Amrit Mahotsav’ is being organised by the university’s Dr M A Ansari Health Centre from August 2-6.
“Vaccination is an effective means to fight COVID-19 and we are all sitting here safe and secure as we have already taken two doses of the vaccine. I appeal to all adults to come and get themselves vaccinated,” Akhtar said. JMI officials said adults who have registered themselves are being administered free precautionary doses of the vaccine at the camp. The university has started a ‘Routine Vaccination Centre’ in association with the Delhi government where vaccines according to the Centre’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) will be administered to small children every Thursday.