How Will You Deal With 3rd Wave Of COVID-19 Pandemic? Supreme Court Asks Centre
Mumbai: A Supreme Court bench, led by Justice DY Chandrachud, on Thursday asked the Centre its plan of action for the third wave of the pandemic, which the government on Wednesday said is inevitable.
Advocate General Tushar Mehta as the bench explains how ready the Center is to deal with the third wave of the pandemic.
Justice Chandrachud said that in the impending third wave, children may be affected and when the child goes to the hospital, his parents will also go. Therefore, there is a need to abolish the vaccination of people of this group by that time, Justice Chandrachud said.
During the hearing, which deals with the supply of oxygen to Delhi, Mehta intervened in the allocation for other states, asking Delhi to allocate 700 metric tonnes of oxygen.
Most hospitals that are raising SOS for oxygen were not covid hospitals and therefore did not have tanks, Mehta said, adding that the capacity to hold oxygen in a cylinder is 12 hours and as many hospitals only had tanks, SOS messages were raised.
As Mehta said the centre would now be accountable for taking oxygen from elsewhere and taking it back to Delhi, Justice Chandrachud said that this formula needed to be remodelled as it underestimated Delhi’s need.
Advocate Rahul Mehta said that it is wrong for the Center to say that other states will suffer from excess oxygen supply to Delhi because according to the Center’s affidavit, the additional 210 metric tonnes is less than 1 per cent of the oxygen that they hold. Mehta said that people are dying in Delhi and the centre should not be allowed to reduce supplies.
Terming Centre’s oxygen allocation to states arbitrary, Mehra said if an audit is required, then it is required to examine these allocations and the tankers. Tushar Mehta said the Centre can not only be concerned with Delhi.
“People have given the mandate to this government twice. People are in the heart. But we can not be concerned only about Delhi. Our concern is that there has to be a mechanism in place for proper allocation and distribution.”
(With Agency Inputs)
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