Require more make-shift hospitals: Centre to SC | Economic Times

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday conceded before the Supreme Court that Covid-19 cases were surging and governments will have to make more make-shift hospitals for admission, medical care and treatment of patients. In its affidavit, it however, objected to the court taking any action on a petition which sought better facilities for doctors and other healthcare workers.The number of Covid-19 cases are constantly increasing and at some point of time in the near future, apart from existing hospitals, large number of temporary make-shift hospitals will have to be created in order to accommodate Covid-19 patients requiring admission, medical care and treatment,” the Centre’s affidavit said. A big part of this would be to conserve healthcare workforce to cater to the anticipated patient load in the hour of distress, it said.The government argued that the corona pandemic was “unprecedented’ and “novel” and there was no universal protocol to deal with it in the absence of any vaccine or treatment except therapeutic care. No single individual’s perceptions can drive protocol, the government said.The government also denied that doctors, despite using PPEs, were testing positive for Covid-19. Adequate self-protection measures can prevent infection, it said.Only those with high risk exposure or showing symptoms of Covid-19 need to be quarantined for 14 days, it said. If adequate measures are taken, a healthcare worker’s risk is not higher than of any other person, the government claimed.Nor do they pose additional risk to their families or children, as suggested in the petition, it said. Mandatory quarantine of 14 days after putting in a roster duty of 7-17 days for every healthcare worker is not justified or warranted, it said.The petition had sought special quarantine facilities for all doctors to prevent the spread of infection to their friends and families. The government also claimed that it had so far distributed 99.34 lakh PPEs and 123.08 lakh masks as on June 1, 2020. The government denied any infirmities in its protocol. It will now be up to the court to decide whether to pass any orders in the case or leave it to the government to take a call depending on the ground situation.