Five patients were killed and six injured in Gujarat’s Rajkot city on Friday in a fire that broke out in a Covid-19 ward, the fourth blaze in a novel coronavirus hospital since the outbreak began. The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance and expressed anguish over the incident, seeking a report.
“This is shocking. Let me say this is not the first incident. We are taking suo motu cognizance of this incident,” a three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and also comprising Justices R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah told the counsel appearing for Gujarat. The bench noted that this is not the first fire incident at a Covid-19 designated hospital and remarked that no complete steps have been taken in this regard.
The SC asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, to submit a report on what steps are taken in this regard and also sought a report from the Gujarat government. “Why no fire prevention mechanism is present? Someone has to do 24×7 monitoring of the situation. There needs to be an inspection of whether electrical lines are proper or not. How does this short circuit happen?” Justice Shah questioned.
In August, eight Covid-19 patients were killed in a fire in the ICU ward of a hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.