NEW DELHI: Coming down heavily on the
AAP government for its flip-flop in taking key decisions to control the surge in
Covid-19 cases, including a cap on the number of wedding guests,
Delhi High Court on Thursday said a delay of 18 days cost many lives that could have been saved.
While hearing a plea on the latest surge in
cases, a bench of justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad remarked, “You (
Delhi government) saw from November 1 which way the wind was blowing. But you turn turtle now because we asked you some questions. The bell should have rung loud and clear when the numbers were spiralling. What did you do from November 1 till November 11? Why did you wait 18 days to take a decision? Do you know how many lives were lost during this period? Can you explain it to those who lost their near and dear ones?”
The court demanded to know why it had to “shake you out of your slumber on November 11” after the government said it had on Wednesday reduced the number of wedding guests from 200 to 50 after approval from the
Centre.
“It is disheartening to note that the daily number of deaths in Delhi have steadily climbed from 71 as on November 9 to 131 on November 18 with new cases having climbed up to 7,486. There is bound to be immense pressure on the health facilities, which is an equal matter of concern,” the bench observed.
The bench further stated, “Delhi government should have put its house in order. You knew Delhi gets worse during this period due to the air pollution. You knew the cold wave along with the rise in air pollution would be a problem for those having breathing problems. It becomes a cocktail of death for those living in Delhi.”
It added that Delhi government had anticipated in September itself that cases would rise in October-November during the festive season as it had decided to increase the number of
ICU beds to cater to the expected rise in Covid-19 numbers. Yet even in such a scenario, the administration went ahead to open up marketplaces and allowed public transportation to run at full capacity.
“You should be alive to the situation. In fact, you should be studying the Covid situation with a magnifying glass as Delhi has topped cities like New York and Sao Paulo in infections,” it noted, adding that even the sero survey report of that month had anticipated the increase in cases.
The comments came after Delhi government claimed it was in the process of augmenting ICU beds by an additional 663 beds. Appearing for the government, senior advocate Sandeep Sethi and standing counsel Satyakam submitted that the central government had offered to pitch in with an additional 750 ICU beds, of which 250 would be available next week.
While directing that the additional ICU beds be put in place by next week, the court also ordered Delhi government to publicise on its website as well as in news media the requisition of 80% ICU beds in 33 hospitals, so that people would know where to go. It also turned its attention to RT-PCR testing and found that between November 9 and 17 “just about 50% of the total tests were undertaken during this period”.
“This court has time and again emphasised that the number of asymptomatic people are huge and the positivity rate has been slowly climbing up, having reached 14% as on date. Delhi government ought to have been alive to the fact that testing through RAT is not serving the purpose and the answer lies in increasing testing through RT-PCR,” the high court further noted.