As citizens of Delhi haplessly wander in a struggle to find a hospital bed for critical patients, the Delhi government has decided to reserve 100 rooms of the luxurious Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi for setting up of Covid care facility for the use of Justices, other judicial officers of Delhi High Court, and their family members.
Delhi government to convert 100 rooms of Ashoka Hotel for setting up of a Covid Health facility for Justices and other judicial officers of the Delhi High Court and their families. pic.twitter.com/6O4qnGu9Km
— ANI (@ANI) April 26, 2021
The decision comes after the AAP government received a request from the Delhi High Court to set up a Covid Hospital Care facility for Hon’ble Justices and other judicial officers.
The Primus Super Speciality Hospital of Delhi has been given the responsibility to manage the patients at Ashoka Hotel, a five-star facility. A detailed notification to that effect was issued by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Chanakyapuri, Geeta Grover.
Some key directions in the order include:
- The Primus Hospital shall run the CHC facility at Ashoka Hotel
- The staff of the hotel shall be provided all protective gear and given basic adequate training
- Ambulance for the transfer facility will be provided by the Primus Hospital
- For any shortage of hotel staff, the same will be provided by the Hospital
- All the services including rooms, housekeeping, disinfection & food for the patients etc. shall be provided by the hotel
- The charges shall be collected by the hospital and the hospital shall make the payment to the hotel
Delhi government asked to enhance health infrastructure
Delhi is currently witnessing an acute shortage of oxygen beds for critical COVID-19 patients. ICU facilities are no longer available because of the heavy influx of patients. The national capital recorded 350 deaths and 22,933 new coronavirus cases on Sunday.
Amid the soaring numbers, the Delhi HC has also requested the Delhi government to enhance health infrastructure by expanding sample collection and testing centres. The citizens have also been raising an alarm of the delay in test results.
PIL to consider judicial officers as frontline workers
Meanwhile, owing to the nature of work at a Court, a Public Interest Litigation plea has been filed by Shobha Gupta and other advocates enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi before the Delhi High Court to treat the judicial officers as frontline workers and to reserve facilities in private/government Covid hospitals for the treatment of judicial officers and their families.
The petition stated that Covid protocols were not being followed in courts exposing the staff to the risks of Covid-19 amid the second wave.
This comes taking into consideration the fact that a number of judges and staff had fallen prey to the Covid-19 pandemic since January and some even lost the battle to the deadly virus.