Expecting rise in COVID patients in coming days: Centre's affidavit in Supreme Court

The central government on Thursday filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court on the current Coronavirus situation in the country and said it is expecting a surge in the number of patients in the coming days. The government informed the apex court that the number of cases of COVID are constantly increasing and at some point of time in near future, apart from existing hospitals, a large number of temporary make-shift hospitals will have to be created in order to accommodate COVID-19 patients.

The health of healthcare workers is a top priority

The affidavit further stated that to successfully create an optimum infrastructure to provide best medical care to Coronavirus patients, the Centre will adequately address human resource issue for this envisaged surge capacity scenario. "Hence conserving health care workforce is the need of the hour in order to cater to the anticipated patient load in the hour of distress," it added. 

The government was responding to a PIL filed in the top court by Dr Aarushi Jain asking the government to take steps for the protection of doctors and other health workers who are in the forefront of fighting COVID-19. The Centre also informed that the health of the doctors, nurses and other staff is its top priority.

COVID-19 cases saw a record single-day jump

Meanwhile, Coronavirus cases in India saw a record single-day jump of 9,304 cases on Thursday pushing the total tally to 2,16,919, while the death toll climbed to 6,075 with 260 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry. India stood seventh among the nations worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy.

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The Health Ministry said the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 1,06,737 while 1,04,106 people have recovered and one patient has migrated. "Thus, around 47.99 % of patients have recovered so far," a senior official said.

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Of the 260 deaths reported since Wednesday morning, 122 were in Maharashtra, 50 in Delhi, 30 in Gujarat, 11 in Tamil Nadu, 10 in West Bengal, seven each in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, six in Rajasthan, four in Andhra Pradesh and one each in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

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The highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was reported from Maharashtra at 74,860, followed by Tamil Nadu at 25,872, Delhi at 23,645, Gujarat at 18,100 Rajasthan at 9,652, Madhya Pradesh at 8,588 and Uttar Pradesh at 8,729.

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