Takeaways from apex court order on affordable Covid care
The Supreme Court’s recent order labelling affordable Covid care a fundamental right is welcome at many levels, though it comes at a time when there is little evidence of the infection’s feared winter wave. In fact, the last million fresh cases came in 29 days as compared to just 11 days during the Covid peak. The Bench’s order would hopefully rationalise the cost of testing and treatment at private facilities and ensure dignity in the handling of patients and bodies.
Had it intervened emphatically—as it did on the interest on interest question—during the initial lockdown when many migrant labourers trudged home for hundreds of kilometres without food or shelter due to lack of transport, it would have had a sobering effect on the administration. Anyway, better late than never. A lot has happened ever since.
The government has understood the futility of total lockdowns; won a state election without migration taking its toll; people splurged big time during the festival season despite financial stress; and the economy is picking up after plunging to record depths. The focus now is on mass vaccination with the most vulnerable sections getting the first opportunity to take the jab.
As the court pointed out, the spike in cases happened as people largely failed to observe Covid protocols. That Gujarat alone collected Rs 80-90 crore as penalty from those flouting pandemic norms indicates the gravity of the problem.
Conventional wisdom suggests that the mass build-up of protesting farmers at Delhi’s gates for over three weeks could snowball into a Covid cluster, though there is no indication of it yet. And participants of Amit Shah’s massive rally in West Bengal on Saturday didn’t seem conscious of the need for Covid discipline.
The SC order endorsed poll-time Covid guidelines issued by the EC and the latter patted itself on its back after the successful Bihar polls. But the fact remains that the poll body did precious little to police campaigning in Bihar where wearing masks and personal distancing were completely ignored. India must consider itself fortunate that the indiscipline did not turn Bihar into a Covid bomb. Had the SC made officials accountable for enforcing the EC’s pandemic norms, anxiety around subsequent elections would have significantly diminished.