COVID-19 touched almost every household in Delhi, says HC as it raps Kejriwal government

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up the AAP government for relaxing norms for public movement and gatherings even as COVID-19 cases were increasing with no household “left untouched”, and sought to know if it had any policy or strategy in place to deal with the “alarming” situation.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramanium Prasad said when Delhi, as city state, was “hands down beating” Maharashtra and Kerala in the number of daily new cases in the past two weeks, what concrete steps have been taken by the AAP government to contain the spread of infection. 

The court noted that the daily number of new COVID-19 cases received for November 10 was at 8,593 and “still counting” and the number of containment zones in the city were 4,016. 

In the last 2-3 weeks when there has been an alarming rise in cases in the city, “alarm bells ought to have rung” and the government should have done something to deal with it, the court said.

It also noted that as per the sero survey report the presence of antibodies was detected in 25 per cent of the people tested.  

“No household has been left untouched,” the bench said, referring to the survey data and questioned as to why the government was relaxing norms in such a situation when other similarly placed states were bringing in restrictions. 

The court questioned the rationale behind allowing 200 people to attend functions instead of reducing the number and permitting public transportation to be fully occupied. 

(With agency inputs)