Uttarakhand HC directs govt to file report on actions taken to fight second wave of COVID
DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand high court on Tuesday directed the state government to raise the points mentioned in the court's order before the state cabinet on its meeting on April 22 and file a report about the actions taken in the meeting.
The division bench including Chief Justice RS Chauhan ordered the personal appearance of Chief Secretary, health secretary, and finance secretary of the state on next date of hearing on May 10, 2021 and the submission of report on actions taken till May 5, 2021.
Dushyant Mainali, the petitioner in the matter, who appeared in person in the court said, "We apprised the honorable court of the ground situation and the court has issued directions to combat the second wave."
The court also directed the government to immediately provide mobile testing facilities in the hills, and interior areas of the state while hearing a public interest litigation regarding Covid 19 situation.
Directions to the government:
- increase Covid dedicated hospitals immediately from present five across the state,
- provide PPE and other safety gears to the medical staff and all other staff in state government health centers,
- increase Covid Care Centres immediately from present 12,
- immediately establish temporary hospitals with the help of DRDO and other agencies,
- purchase variety of testing kits available in the market,
- increase CT Scan facilities so that every District Level/Base and other government hospitals is well equipped to identify patients who are infected by the latest, highly contagious variant of the Covid 19 virus also known as 'Double Mutant'
And for safeguarding the underprivileged, the HC directed checking for overcharging by private hospitals and to make sure action is taken if rules are being violated. The state government must also ensure 25% of the beds in private hospitals are provided to people living below poverty line.
"The court issued directions to publish data of available beds, empty beds, occupied beds, nearby testing centres and list of hospitals with online real-time data available to public," added Mainali.
The secretary of health department of Uttarakhand was directed to submit a report regarding details of number of beds, ICU beds, beds with ventilators and oxygen, test labs, private hospitals, data of Remdesivir available and steps taken for the supply, data of PPE kits and safety gears availability and the rate of its daily consumption and steps taken following the suggestions of the district monitoring committies.