Another intervention plea has been filed in the Supreme Court, on its suo motu case pertaining to honourable treatment of Covid-19 patients by providing all life-saving facilities. Petitioner Shashank Deo Sudhi seeks dignified disposal of dead bodies of Covid patients within 24 hours of their death, in accordance with their religious rites and rituals.
The plea seeks to evolve a mechanism to save lives of Covid patients and bear payment expenses to ensure private hospitals don’t demand huge money at the time of admitting patients.
The plea cites harrowing reports from Sion Hospital in Mumbai where bodies of Covid-19 patients were kept wrapped in plastic bags, right next to patients under treatment. It seeks the court’s intervention over lack of management and arrangement for Covid treatment, seeking that state governments should constitute an oversight committee to ensure treatment as per prescribed patterns in both government and private hospitals, so that no corona patient is turned back on account of non-availability of beds in hospitals.
The petition also seeks enhancement of Covid testing across states, especially in localities with large suspicion of infected patients. It seeks that states should have adequate trained staff, in light of incidents where crematorium and ambulance staffers have been mishandling corona-infected dead bodies.
