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Covid situation grave in Punjab, Chandigarh: HC
Punjab govt told the court that the bed capacity has been enhanced and supply of oxygen and essential drugs has been increased
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday observed that the Covid-19 situation is grave in Punjab and Chandigarh.
The observations were made by the high court bench of justice Rajan Gupta and justice Karamjit Singh after perusing status reports on the virus situation, which indicated that Covid-19 designated hospitals have almost exhausted its bed availability. The court did not make any remark with respect to Haryana as it had failed to submit a report. The court deferred the hearing for afternoon and summoned the Haryana chief secretary for a hearing through the online mode.
The high court was hearing an application from amicus curaie Rupinder Khosla, who had sought revival of a case disposed of last week in which the court was monitoring Covid-19 situation in the two states and Chandigarh.
Khosla told court that there is non-availability of essential drugs such as Remdesivir and Tocilizumab. Oxygen, ICU beds, ventilators and oxygen concentrators are in short supply due to which a number of deaths are being reported. “It is almost at its edge and can tilt over any time. Before the situation gets out of hands, intervention of this court is imperative,” Khosla had said, pointing to status report on availability of beds for critical care.
“..we feel that the situation is indeed grave,” the bench observed ordering revival of petition and impleading Centre’s health ministry and ministry of home affairs as parties.
In the afternoon hearing, the Haryana chief secretary told court that there has been sudden dearth of oxygen as some plants in Roorkee, Rewari and Baddi (Barotiwala) have collapsed. “As a result, oxygen has been sought from the plants from Rourkela and Angul in Odisha by means of road, rail and other means,” he said, adding that even Indian Air Force has flown a few sorties to fetch the oxygen from these far flung places. All efforts are being made to meet the demand of deficit oxygen, he told court further assuring that a detailed report would be filed within two days.
The Punjab government told the court that the bed capacity has been enhanced and supply of oxygen and essential drugs has been increased. The Centre told court that a virtual control room has been set up and states can raise their demand there.
The court said that investigating agencies should act against hoarding of oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators and essential medicines. The court further advised that patients may be segregated into three categories, such as critical, mild to moderate and mild and the plan be drawn up accordingly.
The court, while deferring the matter for May 4, directed that district-level nodal teams be set up as ordered on April 23 and compliance reports be filed. “In case of failure to do so, this court will examine whether there is any wilful disobedience of the orders passed by this court by any district,” the bench said.
Punjab has 1,230 ventilators
Punjab has told the court that the state has 1,230 ventilators, 524 in government and 706 in private sector. The daily consumption of oxygen is about 227 metric tonnes and central government allocation is of 177 metric tonnes. The demand for the remaining oxygen is being met through other sources. As of beds and occupancy, the state told court that government sector has 4,193 level-2 category beds and 1,210 are occupied. As of level- 3, there are 550 beds and 523 are occupied. In private sector, 4,678 beds have been allocated for level-2 patients, of which 3,084 are occupied. As of level-3 category, there are 1,486 beds and 1,149 are occupied, the state said.
‘16,340 FIRs registered, ₹42 cr fine collected’
The Punjab government told the high court that since May 2020, 16,340 FIRs have been registered and 22,561 persons have been arrested for violation of lockdown guidelines. A sum of ₹42.83 crore were collected in fine and a total of 10 lakh persons have been fined for various violations. As many as 7,82,566 challans were isued for not wearing masks alone.
