The Telangana High Court has come down heavily on the state government for hiding Covid-19 details from the public domain. The HC lashed out at the Telangana government by saying “how come deaths are only in single digit, it looks like you are underreporting deaths.”
The court asked the government to submit a report on how much it spent on public health from 24th march. This is not the first time that the High Court has rebuked the KCR government.
According to reports, the High Court believes that the government behaves in a negligent manner. The HC ordered the state government to improve the facilities in the districts.
“There are discrepancies between the health ministry’s bulletins and bulletins released by the districts. Submit the reports of the bulletins and details of isolation centres and covid care centres to us. The frequency of ambulances from districts to Hyderabad should be increased. The coronavirus test should be conducted by mobile vans”, said the High Court.
“Since 31st March, the government has been reporting 8, 9, or 10 deaths. And the court may be suspecting that the government has deliberately been hiding many deaths. The court has demanded a detailed report on it,” said Advocate Prabhakar who is a social activist and lawyer representing professors PL Vishweshwar Rao and Cheruku Sudhakar.
Professors PL Vishweshwar Rao and Cheruku Sudhakar have filed a Public Interest Litigation alleging that the Telangana government has failed in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
The court is not satisfied with the action of the government on private hospitals. It questioned whether private hospitals are above the law? It enquired whether private hospitals reserve any beds for Covid-19 patients?
On the other hand, 18% of Telangana’s health care workers have tested positive for Covid-19, the highest in the country, according to the Union health ministry.
“We track the health of paramedics, nurses, and doctors. They are a precious resource and there is a need to protect our health care workers against infection. In Telangana, the positivity rate among health care workers is 18%, while it is 16% in Maharashtra, 14% in Delhi, 13% in Karnataka, 12% in Puducherry, and 11% in Punjab. These are the states where the positivity rate among health care workers is the highest,” said the secretary of Union health ministry, Rajesh Bhushan.