Following a petition from a private individual, the High Court of Karnataka has asked the state government to submit a detailed report regarding the availability of healthcare infrastructure in the state by April 9, Thursday. The court also asked the state government to immediately respond to instances of violence against health workers who are doing their job.
The Hindu reported that the Karnataka High Court has asked for details of district wise data of isolation beds, ICUs (intensive care unit) with ventilators available for COVID-19 patients, and also up-to-date numbers of the positive cases per district.
The court also asked for details on the availability of masks, PPE (personal protective equipment) and alcohol-based sanitisers at the hospitals run by the state, reported the Times of India. Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka headed the division bench for this order.
These developments follow two e-mails to the High Court. One petition was emailed by an individual named Dr Rajiv Ramesh Gothe, about the series of attacks against ASHA workers in the state, who were out doing their duty, collecting data about coronavirus patients. The second was
The High Court was also responding to an e-mail letter from the Department of Pathology in the ESI hospital in Kalaburagi, where a COVID-19 patient passed away. In her email, the head of department of Pathology, Dr Zeenath, had said that the doctors and hospital staff in the Kalaburagi hospital were “not even provided with masks,” and were thus at risk of contracting COVID-19 themselves, while treating affected patients.
There has been a growing mistrust against the ASHA workers in Karnataka as TNM had previously reported. ASHA workers who had gone to the districts to collect data for a health-related government survey were turned away, as they were mistakenly assumed to be collecting data for the much contested Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.