Apex court asks Centre to prepare for 3rd wave

Supreme Court directs government to create required infrastructure to handle next Covid surge

The Supreme Court on Thursday said the country needs to be prepared for the third wave of Covid-19 which experts say could be more harmful, especially for children, and emphasised upon the need to create buffer stock of oxygen.

The apex court asked the Centre not to reduce oxygen supply to Delhi from 700 metric tonnes till further orders and ensure that rationalisation exercise is completed while taking into account the pan-India perspective. The court said that people in Delhi are dying despite efforts being made to treat Covid-19 patients and there is also no denying that many have lost their lives due to shortage of oxygen supply.

It made clear to the Centre and Delhi government that it will not allow the top court of the country to be a ground of recrimination between the two as both indulged in a blame game on the issue of allocation and supply of oxygen.

A bench of Justices D.Y.

Chandrachud and M.R. Shah said: “We need to prepare for the third surge of Covid-19 which may have altogether different parameters. We have to be ready for that. We have been reading that some experts have said that the third surge will be more harmful especially to children.”

“We understand children are more resilient as compared to elders but we have to also consider that they themselves will not go to hospitals and their parents will have to take them making them vulnerable.”

The bench warned both Solicitor General Tushar

Mehta, appearing for the Centre, and senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, that the Supreme Court being the top Constitutional court of the country cannot be allowed to be a ground of recrimination.

Mehra further said that despite the top court’s direction, the Centre has failed to allocate requisite oxygen to the state even on Thursday as per their estimate, a day after it had given 730 metric tonnes.

Mehta said that a survey was conducted in 56 major hospitals of the national capital on May 4 and it revealed that they had significant stock of liquid medical oxygen (LMO).

He said if the Centre keeps on giving 700MT of oxygen to Delhi, it will deprive other states of equitable distribution.

The bench said people and hospitals are making SOS calls including on social media that they have very limited oxygen left or they are running out of it, which is creating panic.

“People and even some big hospitals of the national capital are making SOS calls about a shortage of oxygen supply. Why are you not creating a buffer stock? If as you claim, Delhi is not using or needs

700MT and only 490MT is needed, then this excess

200MT can be used to create a buffer stock, the bench said, adding that there can be a centralised pool of buffer stock, like if any hospital runs out of the oxygen, it can be replenished immediately.

We need to prepare for the third surge of Covid-19.. We have to be ready for that. We have been reading that some experts have said that the third surge will be more harmful especially to children.

— Supreme Court