The Telangana High Court on Monday yet again expressed displeasure over the state government for not implementing its directions in handling the COVID-19 crisis. The court had earlier asked the health department to inform them about the containment policy adopted by the government, to install a live dashboard in all COVID-19 hospitals and provide vital details and furnish daily bulletins and to fix an upper cap on private hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. However, as the government is yet to comply with the orders, the bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy summoned the Chief Secretary. The court made these observations while dealing with five petitions on Monday, which alleged government inaction in providing facilities to handle the pandemic, Deccan Chronicle reported.
“We intend to ask the AG about the non implementation of previous court orders. Even in the latest bulletin, complete information was not given. Since the State Chief Secretary was asked to appear before the court on Tuesday, we will ask him in this regard,” the bench was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express. The matter was posted for hearing to Tuesday.
The bench lamented that the fresh medical bulletin did not have full information. The Health department has been issuing the health bulletin in a revised format with a list of medical centres providing antigen tests and the availability of beds in each district since Sunday.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the state recorded 1,610 COVID-19 cases and nine deaths. The death toll in the state stands at 480. Out of the 57,142 cases, the state presently has 13,753 active cases. Among them 8,479 patients are under home quarantine.
On Monday, the state conducted 15,839 tests and the test results of 839 patients are awaited, the government said in its health bulletin.
As per the data, 65.6% males and 34.4% females have been infected with the coronavirus. Among these, the highest percentage of males (17.7%) belonged to the 31-40 age group whereas the highest percentage of females (7.9%) belonged to the 21-30 age group.