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After court pulls up, U'khand CM says preparations on to combat Covid third wave
Earlier in the day, Uttarakhand High Court reprimanded health secretary Amit Negi, saying that the state government's arrangements to tackle the Delta Plus variant and a possible third wave are insufficient
Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat said on Thursday that the state government is making all preparations in order to combat the possible third wave of coronavirus (Covid-19).
He added that he has also directed to convert the chief minister’s residence into a Covid care centre in view of the probable third wave of the viral disease.
“I had not even thought of the second Covid wave. It was bad. Now, we have controlled the situation and increased the number of hospitals in the state. They will possibly reach 30 in number,” Rawat was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Saluting the medical fraternity, the chief minister further stated that he himself had experienced the tragedy wrought by pandemic as he had to perform the last rites of several police and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel.
This comes after the Uttarakhand High Court earlier in the day reprimanded health secretary Amit Negi for the state government’s preparedness to tackle the possible third wave and the Delta Plus variant of Covid-19.
Hearing public interest litigation (PIL) on the handling of the pandemic by the state government, the court said that the administration cannot “leave the children to die” and that their arrangements are inadequate.
“The Delta variant was spread across the country in a month, the Delta Plus variant will not take even three months. What are you doing to save our children? You must be thinking that Delta Plus variant will say let the government prepare first and then it will attack,” the division bench said, as reported by ANI.
“Stop fooling us as we know the reality. Don't tell the Chief Justice that there is Ram Rajya in Uttarakhand and that we live in heaven,” the court further noted.
India is among 11 countries where Covid-19 cases related to the Delta Plus variant have been confirmed. As many as 40 samples from across the country have been found infected so far, with most cases being in Kerala, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Tamil Nadu also reported its first Delta Plus variant case, with a Chennai-based nurse getting infected, a top government official said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, two cases of the variant were reported in Karnataka – one each from Bengaluru and Mysuru, state health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said.
The variant that has till now affected almost 200 people worldwide has been labelled as a “variant of concern” by the Indian government.
