The Delhi High Court on Friday called the breakdown of the health infrastructure amid the coronavirus pandemic a “complete failure” of the central government, PTI reported. A division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli was hearing a petition filed by a group of lawyers seeking medical facilities to advocates suffering from Covid-19.

During the hearing, Bar Council of Delhi Chairperson Ramesh Gupta, who was one of the petitioners, broke down in the court and said that they were completely helpless and receiving hundreds of calls every day from affected lawyers, The Indian Express reported.

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Gupta, who appeared for the petitioners, said they were not seeking financial assistance, Live Law reported. “We have made arrangements with a private guesthouse,” Gupta told the court. “They are agreeing to provide all the facilities including doctors but they cannot have a provision of ICU [intensive care unit]...We do not need anything. We do not need money. We only need attachment so that patients in case of serious emergency can be shifted to ICU.”

The court empathised with Gupta saying that the prevailing situation was not a “battle but a war”.

“We understand your pain...We are going through it ourselves every day,” the court said. The bench, however, noted that passing an order for a dedicated medical facility to be made available was not going to be enough in this case. It thus directed the Delhi government to take instructions on the issue at the next hearing of the case.

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Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday urged the Delhi government to ensure cooperation with the Centre and refrain from indulging in politics while dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. The court made the remarks during the proceedings of a suo motu case on the management of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Thursday, Delhi recorded 24,235 new cases of coronavirus, while 395 patients died. The city logged a positivity rate of 32.82%.