Snakes & ladders game in fight against pandemic

NEW DELHI:  Coronavirus pandemic in the last one year infected over 6.39 lakh city residents and claimed more than 10,900 lives. Delhi’s graph of Covid-19 cases saw a constant up and down. The city was affected with three major waves and reached peak - first time in June, second time in September and third time in November. Of all the three waves, the last wave was the deadliest, which saw cases going above 7,000 per day for a week and registering as many as 8,500 positives in a single day.

Three of state ministers Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai had also tested positive. “There is still no proper medicine. The Delhi government was proactive. We came up with daily orders. We can proudly say whatever initiatives we took were adopted by others. Take for example plasma therapy. It is in Delhi where plasma therapy was started first across the world. In July, plasma bank was set up. It was then adopted by the US government. Home isolation was our idea,” said Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain over government’s experience in handling the pandemic.

With mounting cases, the capital became one of top cities in terms of infection count. The state had not just its own patients to look after but also saw a rush from neighbouring states. To tackle the pressure, dedicated hospitals were made, even private hospitals were asked to reserve beds, ICU beds with ventilators were added too. The AAP government also did door-to-door survey and its own sero-surveys to estimate state’s condition.

“Initially high fatality owing to the virus was a concern but soon the government realised its loopholes. Despite the city being a hotspot with constant international visitors, being national capital, taking the patient load from neighbouring states it did well,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung hospital. Dr Kishore added that the government should continue its observation over the pandemic.

The government had also divided the severity of patients in largely three categories. For asymptomatic and mild symptom patients government started off with home isolation. For moderate symptomatic patients, Covid Care Centres were made and those critical, they were taken to hospitals. A 10,000-bedded CCC was also inaugurated at Chattarpur.

“Home isolation is indeed a good decision taken by government. They even provided with oxymeters which showed care for public. It was first initiated by AAP government. People hesitated to go to hospitals, they were afraid and what could have been better to cure than staying at home with necessary facilities provided by state authorities.

Also Plasma Bank which was later found ineffective but last year it was conveyed to be useful. Instead of looking around for donors, government came up with a plasma bank. Also, the leaders including CM have always been active in terms of spreading awareness. They did the right step by increasing fine over masks,” said Dr Lalit Kant former Scientist ‘G’ and Head (Epidemiology and. Communicable Diseases Division), ICMR.

HC issues guidelines on physical court hearings
The Delhi High Court Tuesday issued certain guidelines to be followed upon resumption of physical court hearings from March 15, including that visitors and advocates shall maintain social distancing as per government norms.

A circular issued by the adminstration branch of the high court said entry of litigants will be regulated as it was during the pre-Covid-19 pandemic period and facilitation counter/ pass counter will also function in the normal manner. ‘All the visitors including lawyers shall maintain social distancing as per norms/ protocol issued by the government of India/ Delhi government and or this court,’ it said.

It added that all the gates including the entry and exit gates of underground car parking shall be opened and operated as it was done pre-pandemic period Recently, the high court had issued an office order stating that from March 15, all its judges would hold physical hearing of cases.