COVID-19 crisis: Chhattisgarh HC asks govt to ensure no oxygen shortage-related deaths

The Chhattisgarh HC on Monday asked the Bhupesh Baghel-led government to take prudent steps for ensuring that no COVID-19 patient loses life in the state for cessation of oxygen supply.  A division bench of Chief Justice PP Ramachandra Menon and Justice Parth Prateem Sahu's order came on a suo moto writ petition pertaining to the novel coronavirus situation in Chhattisgarh. Passing a slew of directions, the HC directed that immediate arrangements should be made to streamline the supply of medical oxygen if there is any chance of a shortage. 

Moreover, the state government will have to file a status report within a period of two weeks. At present, there are 1,23,835 active cases in Chhattisgarh while 5,21,217 patients have been discharged and 7310 fatalities have been recorded. On the other hand,  A total of 47,70,535 persons have been inoculated in Maharashtra till now, 6,33,343 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. 

Here are HC's directions:

• The state government should procure and provide maximum infrastructure and more centres for conducting the RT-PCR tests and to make available the test reports immediately
• The State/authorities/Test Centers shall not wait for the test result to get uploaded to the server of the ICMR before making it available to the person concerned. Test result shall be informed to the person concerned forthwith, through appropriate modes like Whatsapp, E-mail, etc. 
• The state government should implement a 'Centralised Network' whereby a person is able to ascertain the vacancy position of beds in various hospitals, including private hospitals for proper management and admission of the patients
• A helpdesk should be maintained in every district hospital so that patients are not turned away without telling the destination where beds are available
• There shall be effective cooperation and coordination between the Chief Medical and Health Officer and the District Collectors/District Magistrates in giving effect to the networking as above and to provide necessary assistance in all respects
• If not done already, the state government should consider fixation of ceiling of rates with regard to the COVID-19 treatment in private hospitals to avoid exploitation
• The state government is directed to convene a meeting of all concerned to take stock of the situation as to the oxygen supply/availability as on date and the imminent future requirement