Gujarat government's action to contain Covid-19 comes under court scanner yet again

The action of the state government to contain the coronavirus has once again come under the scanner of Gujarat High Court, which has sought a report on action being taken to contain the virus spread in Surat, the city which has overtaken Ahmedabad in terms of most number of active cases as well as daily reporting of positive cases.

By Tuesday, Surat had 3,800 active cases compared to 3500 in Ahmedabad.

The bench has said while seeking a report, "After having witnessed what happened in Ahmedabad, the state should have been more careful in tackling the situation in the city of Surat. We are informed that the delayed response from the state and city administration is responsible for the current situation in the city of Surat, which has gone from bad to worse. The Health Department of the State Government knew that Surat would erupt in a matter of time. We are informed that the testing was not ramped up. Even the basic awareness to remove the fear psychosis about the disease is found lacking. According to many experts, Surat had to only replicate the readily available and lauded “Ahmedabad Model."

The bench has been monitoring the state government's Covid-19 fight for nearly three months, forcing the state government to lift curbs on testing, build medical infrastructure, penalise private hospitals, among others.

The high court has also taken note of reports on no testing laboratories available in 11 districts such as Bharuch, Surendranagar, Dahod, Panchmahals, Mahisagar, Botad, Kheda, Morbi, Chhotaudepur, Anand, and Aravalli districts. These districts don't have any testing facility available. The data has revealed that in nine of the districts the cases are rising.

"In such circumstances referred to above, we would like to know before we proceed to issue appropriate directions in the aforesaid regard the stance of the state government. We call upon the state government to explain as to why we should not direct that testing laboratories in the aforesaid eleven districts should be set up at the earliest," the bench has said.