HYDERABAD: With Greater Hyderabad emerging as epicentre of Covid-19 pandemic in Telangana - a fact confirmed by Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan himself recently - the Telangana high court on Thursday directed the state to publish in detail Covid-19 cases ward-wise in GHMC area and share them with residents welfare associations (RWAs) every day.
The high court told the state to publish the details on front pages of vernacular dailies.
Change media bulletin format, include ward-wise details: HC
A bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy was hearing a batch of PILs where director of public health G Srinivas told HC that Greater Hyderabad alone accounts for 95% of coronavirus cases detected in Telangana so far. The judges told Srinivas to change the format of the media bulletin and include ward-wise details. “Get them published on the front pages of vernacular media so that the message reaches the common man who will take more precautions to combat the virus,” the bench told the health director, who appeared before the court in a video-conference.
The bench also directed assistant solicitor general Namavarapu Rajeswara Rao to place before the court all the directives and guidelines issued by the Union health ministry and ICMR on Covid-19 by June 29. It posted the case to June 30.
Earlier, reiterating her allegations, advocate Gorantla Pujitha, counsel for petitioner S Varun of Suryapet, said government has not increased the number of tests. Questioning government’s promise of doing 50,000 tests in 10 days, she said: “Two days are already over and authorities conducted just 2,000 tests. They were supposed to conduct 5,000 tests daily to fulfil the promise of 50,000 tests in 10 days.”
The judges agreed with this and asked the government to increase testing. Responding to one of the objections raised by Pujitha on controlling treatment costs in private hospitals, Srinivas said they will have to necessarily monitor private hospitals to collect data.
Stating that Telangan’s Covid-19 death rate is one of the lowest in the world, advocate general BS Prasad informed the judges that the government had placed orders for testing kits to conduct antigen testing in tune with the latest ICMR advisory. “The state government will commence this testing soon. It (death rate) in Telangana is less than national average. We have designated 54 government hospitals all over the state as Covid-19 hospitals,” he explained. At this, the CJ asked the government to give wide publicity to these aspects.
Gandhi Hospital superintendent Dr Raja Rao, who appeared through video-conference, gave a detailed account of plasma therapy and anti-viral drug treatment in association with ICMR and WHO. He assured that there was no lack of PPE kits. The PILs were filed by advocate Sameer Ahmed, Professor PL Vishweshwar Rao, Varun and others.
The high court told the state to publish the details on front pages of vernacular dailies.
Change media bulletin format, include ward-wise details: HC
A bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy was hearing a batch of PILs where director of public health G Srinivas told HC that Greater Hyderabad alone accounts for 95% of coronavirus cases detected in Telangana so far. The judges told Srinivas to change the format of the media bulletin and include ward-wise details. “Get them published on the front pages of vernacular media so that the message reaches the common man who will take more precautions to combat the virus,” the bench told the health director, who appeared before the court in a video-conference.
The bench also directed assistant solicitor general Namavarapu Rajeswara Rao to place before the court all the directives and guidelines issued by the Union health ministry and ICMR on Covid-19 by June 29. It posted the case to June 30.
Earlier, reiterating her allegations, advocate Gorantla Pujitha, counsel for petitioner S Varun of Suryapet, said government has not increased the number of tests. Questioning government’s promise of doing 50,000 tests in 10 days, she said: “Two days are already over and authorities conducted just 2,000 tests. They were supposed to conduct 5,000 tests daily to fulfil the promise of 50,000 tests in 10 days.”
The judges agreed with this and asked the government to increase testing. Responding to one of the objections raised by Pujitha on controlling treatment costs in private hospitals, Srinivas said they will have to necessarily monitor private hospitals to collect data.
Stating that Telangan’s Covid-19 death rate is one of the lowest in the world, advocate general BS Prasad informed the judges that the government had placed orders for testing kits to conduct antigen testing in tune with the latest ICMR advisory. “The state government will commence this testing soon. It (death rate) in Telangana is less than national average. We have designated 54 government hospitals all over the state as Covid-19 hospitals,” he explained. At this, the CJ asked the government to give wide publicity to these aspects.
Gandhi Hospital superintendent Dr Raja Rao, who appeared through video-conference, gave a detailed account of plasma therapy and anti-viral drug treatment in association with ICMR and WHO. He assured that there was no lack of PPE kits. The PILs were filed by advocate Sameer Ahmed, Professor PL Vishweshwar Rao, Varun and others.
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