COVID-19 patients treated worst than animals, bodies found in garbage, Supreme Court pulls up Delhi

New Delhi: Coronavirus COVID-19 patients are being treated worse than animals, the Supreme Court stated on Friday (June 12) as it pulled up Delhi amid spurt of virus cases in the national capital.

“COVID-19 patients are treated worse than animals. In one case, a body was found in the garbage. Patients are dying and nobody is there to even attend to them,” the court said as it asked Delhi Chief Minister and
AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal to explain the reason behind a decline in testing in the national capital. “The number of tests conducted are low in Delhi compared to Chennai and Mumbai. Why are tests so less in Delhi?” the bench said.

“Nobody should be denied testing on technical reasons. Simplify procedure so more and more can test for COVID,” said the bench. The top court pointed out that it is the duty of the state to conduct testing so that more people know about their health status.

The court also issued a notice to Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital seeking a reply on the matter. The national capital has logged 34,687 patients so far and 1,085 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Stating that the situation is even grim in other states, a three-judge bench sought detailed status reports from four states — Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal regarding the conditions in hospitals.

Slamming the AAP government over its handling of the dead bodies amid the outbreak, the apex court termed the situation in Delhi as ‘horrendous, horrific and pathetic’, further calling it ‘very sorry state of affairs’.
The top court said that the government hospitals aren’t giving due care and concern to the bodies with the patients’ families not even informed about the deaths. “In some cases, families haven’t been able to attend the last rites,” it said.

The court asked the Chief Secretaries of states to look into the situation of the patient management system and submit a status report.

Delhi has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in India after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The national capital has logged 34,687 patients so far and 1,085 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry.