Covid-19: Supreme Court pulls up Gujarat, Delhi; Takes note of "rising numbers" across the country

The Supreme Court, on Monday, expressed alarm at the worsening Covid-19 situation, particularly in Gujarat and Delhi and sought details of the steps taken by the governments in those States to tackle the crisisA three-judge bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, MR Shah and Subhash Reddy also asked the states of Maharashtra and Assam to apprise the court of the steps envisaged to manage the crisis. .Justice Shah, who hails from Gujarat, took exception to the States's management of the problem. "What is happening in state of Gujarat? What is the policy decision? What is happening in your state? What steps are you taking with respect to political events etc?" he asked.Counsel for Gujarat said that a status report would be placed before the top court immediately..Regarding Delhi, the bench was informed by Additional Solicitor General, Sanjay Jain that a compliance affidavit had been filed before the apex court by the AAP government on July 22 adhering to its earlier directions However, the court asked what steps the State government was taking to deal with the recent spike in Covid positive cases."Things have worsened in the last two weeks in Delhi. We need a status report to understand bottle necks if any with regard to COVID patients management," Justice Bhushan remarked..To this ASG Jain apprised the court that with the rise in demand for beds in private hospitals, all 115 private hospitals have the 80 percent beds reserved for COVID patients as compared to the earlier notification which had only 33 such hospitals under the reservation ambit..Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, representing the Central government, submitted how it was "unfortunate" that Supreme Court had to deal with an "issue of managing dead bodies.""This is unfortunate for humanity that you have to deal with this. That dead body becomes a subject of this court," said Mehta.The three judge bench stated it "appreciated SG's concern."."Solicitor-General submits that Union Home Minister has taken steps to improve the situation in Delhi. He will file an affidavit regarding status of COVID cases in the country, especially Delhi. Situation this month is likely to further worsen and thus State Governments have to gear up for action that need to be taken," the court said in its order. The case will be heard next on Friday this week.