The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State government to submit a comprehensive status report on the COVID-19 situation in Tiruchi district including the number of private testing labs and hospital beds available.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam put forth a series of queries for the State to answer in a comprehensive report and sought to know if personal protective equipment was provided to frontline health workers including doctors and paramedical staff.
Apart from these queries, the court sought information on whether the test results were informed to asymptomatic patients and within what time period. The details on crematorium and burial facilities for those who died of the pandemic was also sought.
The court directed Tiruchi Collector and Tiruchi Corporation Commissioner to appear before the court through video conferencing during the next hearing to assist the court. The case was adjourned for further hearing to August 27.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by R. Rajagobal from Tiruchi who sought a direction to the State government to ensure proper monitoring of the COVID-19 situation in Tiruchi and to impose a lockdown in the district to contain the spread of the virus.
A separate public interest litigation petition was filed before the court seeking a direction to the State government to move a COVID-19 treatment facility from a private hospital in Srirangam to a suitable place as it was functioning without norms and was situated in a residential area.
The court ordered notice to the State government in the PIL petition filed by S. Sakthivel from Srirangam who said that the private hospital was not having the required infrastructure as per norms. The case was adjourned to August 27 for further hearing.