Observing that the lack of preparedness to manage a sudden surge of COVID-19 cases is a disaster on the part of the State government, the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday directed the administration to immediately get in touch with the armed forces seeking assistance in providing beds with oxygen supply facility.
“The armed forces, including Indian Air Force and the Navy, always provide help to citizens in situations likes natural disasters... and we hope that the armed forces will go out of the way to help citizens of Bengaluru city by providing beds with oxygen facility,” the High Court observed.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar passed the order while noticing that the State government and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were only marginally able to increase the number of different categories of beds to treat COVID-19 patients in the city.
The State government and the BBMP have also been directed to immediately approach officers of the South Western Railway to utilise railway coaches readied for COVID-19 patients.
The bench issued the directions after counsel for the Central government M.N. Kumar pointed out that there are over 200 railway coaches, with beds to treat COVID-19 patients, in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Hubballi, and the Railways had intimated availability of these coaches to the State government, which has not yet shown interest in using them.
The bench said the government must come out with an estimate of beds required of different categories, like ICU, ICU with ventilator, beds with oxygen supply, and Remdesivir injection and oxygen as “preparedness and capacity building for dealing with the disaster” is an important task assigned to the State Disaster Management Authority under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
The bench also directed the State government to immediately write to the Central government to enhance allocation of Remdesivir and oxygen while directing the Centre to decide on increasing allocation immediately.
