Centre in SC: Shortcomings by Delhi govt led to Covid spike

To address this, the Union Home Secretary and Union Health Secretary held review meetings with GNCT officers, it said, adding that the Cabinet Secretary also reviewed the situation in eight states/UTs, including NCT of Delhi, which constitute 62% of the nationwide active cases and 61% of the total deaths… on November 11”.

Listing the “shortcomings on the part of GNCT… found” in these meetings, it said “(there was) no effective preventive steps to contain the infection”.

The NCT government “was aware that the confluence of winter, festival season and pollution were likely to witness a surge in cases”, it said, pointing out an inadequate response. “While there were regular advertisements on achievements of Delhi government, including on dengue prevention and control, no ads on Covid appropriate behaviour were to be seen. The people, at large, were also not apprised about this through regular outreach measures.”

The “report of a high power Committee headed by Dr V K Paul had recommended that Delhi should plan for a surge of around 15,000 cases per day and accordingly provide for about 6,500 ICU beds”. But “GNCTD did not take any timely measures to increase ICU beds from the present level of around 3,500, thus causing a sudden pressure on the health and medical infrastructure”, the affidavit said.

It had also emerged in the meetings that “despite repeated exhortations in the wake of rising cases, the Delhi government did not take steps to enhance testing capacity, particularly for RT-PCR, which remained static at around 20,000 for a long time”.

“The containment measures, as prescribed by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, including house to house surveillance, contact tracing, quarantining and clinical management, were also not done properly, which led to the spread of infection”, the affidavit said, adding that “patients who were under home isolation were not properly traced and/or their contact were also not traced effectively”.

It said that “in view of the… shortcomings”, the Union Home Minister was constrained to call another review meeting on November 15.

However, though the GNCT “committed” to “increase ICU (non-ventilator) beds by around 2,680, the Chief Minister, vide its letter dated 19.11.2020 addressed to the Union Home Minister, expressed his inability to enhance ICU beds in the Delhi (state government and private) hospitals by more than around 912, and asked the central government to create the additional 1,700 ICU beds”, the Centre contended, adding that “it is only after the review meeting of Union Home Minister on 15.11.2020, that it was decided that testing would be enhanced.

In a statement later, the AAP said: “It is unfortunate that the Centre has chosen to play dirty politics in this critical hour. The affidavit seems to have been drafted by a BJP spokesperson rather than the Union government, which is meant to work with the states during a pandemic. However, the Delhi government is worried about the well-being of its people and will continue to work with all governments and agencies.”

“Mr Amit Shah promised to provide 750 ICU beds within 72 hours in the meeting on November 15. Till date, only 200 beds have been provided. We hope the Centre will provide the rest soon. The central government has deprived Delhi of funds provided to other states during this epidemic on the flimsy premise that Delhi is a UT.”