MISMATCH BETWEEN TALLY, ACTUAL NUMBERS: HC PULLS UP GUJ

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court, which initiated a suo motu petition on Monday into the state’s response to the Covid-19 situation, on Thursday pulled up the state government for the mismatch in the official infection numbers and the actual number of positive cases.

A division bench led by Chief Justice Vikram Nath said, “The figures given by the state are not matching with the actual number of positive cases.”The court also sought to know the reason for the queues of ambulance vans outside hospitals and wanted to know why patients had to run from pillar to post for to get admitted into a health care facility.Justice Nath said, “Why there is so much noise about beds not being available in private and government hospitals?”

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Thursday pulled up the Vijay Rupani-led government, saying that the state was facing a “tsunami” of coronavirus cases as it did not pay heed to the suggestions made earlier by the court as well as the Centre, and also because the dispensation was not “as cautious as it should have been”.

A division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Bhargav Karia also raised doubts over the state government’s claims about the availability of beds, testing facilities, medical oxygen and Remdesivir injections.

“In anticipation that the situation may get worse in the future, this court had in February made some suggestions. We told you to get ready with more COVID-designated hospitals, sufficient beds should be available, testing should be increased, make sure people wear masks and strict vigilance at public places,” the bench said.

“But, it seems that the state government did not give due consideration to our suggestions. That is why we are seeing a Tsunami of Corona at present. Though the Centre was also continuously reminding the state about it, the government was not as cautious as it should have been,” it added.

The court was hearing a PIL, taken up suo motu (on its own) a week back, about the coronavirus situation and problems faced by the people.

In his response, Advocate General Kamal Trivedi assured the court that the state government was “serious” and doing everything possible.

On the issue of shortage of Remdesivir injections, a key anti-viral drug, Trivedi said the situation would improve in the days to come as the Centre has recently banned the export on the request of the Gujarat government.

When asked about the testing facilities, the AG informed the court that RT-PCR testing laboratories are there in all the districts, except in Dang.