The Gujarat High Court on Thursday pulled up the state government for the worsening coronavirus situation and questioned its official data on the number of cases and beds available in hospitals, the Hindustan Times reported.
A bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Bhargav Karia was hearing a suo motu public interest litigation on the surge in coronavirus cases in the state.
On Thursday, the second day of hearing, the chief justice said that the state government had failed to follow the order passed by the court in February 2020, where it had given suggestions on handling the pandemic. Nath said that the lack of implementation of those guidelines have now resulted in a “tsunami of cases”.
Advocate General Kamal Trivedi, representing the state government, however, said they were “very much conscious of the worsening situation”, The Indian Express reported. Trivedi claimed doctors were administering remdesivir injections “indiscriminately” and this has led to shortages.
To this, the Justice Karia retorted saying, “Where is the data that doctors are prescribing this indiscriminately? This hype is created because of doctors, because they want to give remdesivir like paracetamol, this is your concern? This is not so.”
The antiviral drug remdesivir, which has been approved for emergency use in South Korea, Japan and the United States, is being prescribed by doctors across India to treat patients with severe coronavirus complications.
The court then went on to suggest that the shortage of remdesivir injections could possibly be caused as the state government was under reporting the actual number of cases.
“The figures given or declared by the state of positive cases is not matching the actual number of cases who have tested positive and who require treatment,” the chief justice told Trivedi. “...If you see the numbers...cases are 7,410 [on April 15], so the number of patients hospitalised will be much less, say 1,000 are admitted and the remaining won’t need remdesivir.”
The court also questioned the government’s submission that more than 53% of the 71,000 Covid-19 beds in the state were available as of April 12.
“We have a doubt on the figures showing that only 53% beds are occupied,” Nath said. “When people are saying there are no beds, how can this figure be correct?”
The chief justice added that the state government’s portal showing availability of beds is not being updated and patients were unable to get admitted to hospitals, Bar and Bench reported.
On testing facilities, the advocate general submitted that RT-PCR tests were being conducted in all districts, with the exception of Dang. To this, the chief justice said that he had information that even Anand district did not have RT-PCR testing facility. Advocates Anand Yagnik and Amit Panchal, who had moved applications to be added as parties, said that many districts, including tribal ones did not have a testing facility.
The court gave more time to the government to file a status report on availability of remdesivir, testing facilities, hospital beds and other requirements of coronavirus patients.
Also read: As the dead pile up in Gujarat, the state’s media is on a warpath with the government over Covid-19
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