'COVID patients being treated worse than animals in Delhi govt hospitals' observes SC

The Supreme Court on Friday took up for hearing the matter regarding the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the national capital along with the disposal of the dead bodies in New Delhi of COVID positive deceased persons. The Supreme Court said that it was “really pained” seeing the stories of Government Hospitals in New Delhi and how they were treating the COVID-19 patients and dead bodies in the hospital. The court had taken suo motu cognizance of the issue late last evening and set up the matter for hearing on Friday.

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'Testing in Delhi has gone down'

During the hearing, the Supreme Court pulled up the Delhi Government stating that Delhi was the only state in the country that had decreased the number of tests daily as compared to all the other states.

“Testing in Delhi has gone down from 7000 to 5000 a day whereas, in places like Mumbai and Chennai, the tests have gone up from 16000 to 17000,” the Supreme Court said. The Supreme Court raised severe concerns regarding the condition saying “people are dying and there is nobody to attend to them”.

“COVID patients are being treated worse than animals. In one case, a body was found in a garbage dump. We are deeply pained seeing this,” the Supreme Court bench observed. The Supreme Court went on to issue notices to the Delhi Government along with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal asking the Chief Secretaries of all States to file status reports on the number of patients that were admitted in government hospitals by the next date of hearing. Notice was also issued to LNJP Hospital in New Delhi from where several reports have emerged in the recent past with videos depicting how patients were left to fend for themselves and dead bodies were not being disposed off in the proper manner.

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