The Gujarat High Court has termed the coronavirus condition prevailing in the state as "frightening" and has directed the chief secretary to constitute a team of five senior IAS officers to inspect the government-run hospitals across the state where covid-19 patients are being treated.
The court has sought a detailed report by September 4.
"The picture that emerges as regards the conditions prevailing as on date in the state of Gujarat is quite frightening. Although all the necessary steps are being taken to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, yet the machinery needs to be geared up and the state should be prepared to meet with the worst of the situation," the order mentions.
The cases of Covid-19 infection crossed 87,000 on Monday after the state recorded 1,067 new cases. The number of fatalities also increased to 2,910 with 13 fresh deaths in the last 24 hours. According to the state government data, the number of discharged persons stood at 70,250.
The high court order states that the report filed by the state government with regard to measures taken to control the virus in Surat, "reflects encouraging trends and facts." The order came on a set of petitions including suo motu public interest litigation on the state government's actions on dealing with the deadly virus. The court has been monitoring the situation for the past three months and has been passing directions to improve conditions.
"We all, at the end of the day, are working towards the common goal of battling this Covid 19 pandemic. From the report, we have been able to discern that the Chief Minister, the Health Minister and other officials of the Health Department have been regularly visiting the city of Surat and have also camped there. We appreciate this, but at the same time, we have now reached to the ultimate conclusion that such efforts need to be put in for all the major cities of Gujarat where the cases of Covid 19 are on the rise."
Saying that there is a lot of "hue and cry" at various civil hospitals, the division bench of chief justice Vikram Nath and Justice J B Pardiwala has directed the chief secretary, Anil Mukim, "to constitution a of five high ranking IAS Officers, not below the rank of Joint/Additional Secretary, at the earliest." The bench has directed the committee to visit all the government-run hospitals "to take stock of things prevailing over there."