Apprise differences in 2 COVID waves: Gauhati High Court to Assam government

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court asked the Assam government to apprise it of the difference between the Covid-19 situation in the first and the current waves of the pandemic, including the infrastructure of government hospitals as well as medical facilities.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Manash Ranjan Pathak passed the order, after hearing the PIL 31/2021. Assam Advocate General D Saikia informed the Court that "under the present circumstances, it will not be practical for private hospitals to reduce the present rates in their hospitals for COVID care etc."

Senior counsel for the petitioners KK Mahanta submitted that "in the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, which was there from May 2020 onwards, the Government itself had come out with a scheme where even in some cases, bills in respect of patients who were being taken care of in private hospitals, were paid by the State government and the same scheme may be implemented again".

To this, Advocate General Saikia stated that "in the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, this scheme was implemented in entirely different circumstances as at that relevant time, there were very few ICUs in government hospitals. For example, in Guwahati, there were only 40 ICUs, but now, there are 691 ICUs in Guwahati, including in two government hospitals, which are exclusively taking care of COVID-19 patients. Therefore, there is no necessity of such a scheme as yet."

The next hearing of the case is on August 17.

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