Amidst the experts warn a third possible wave of Covid-19, the Karnataka High Court on May 12directed the State Government to come up with an action plan and vision statement in two weeks.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar said: “Though during the last few days we have dealt with immediate measures to deal with the enormous challenge posed by Covid-19, it is high time that the state government starts preparation for dealing with the third wave. By projecting estimates of the requirement of beds/drugs, Oxygen, medical personnel etc. We direct the state to prepare an action plan and vision statement dealing with the state of preparedness for dealing with the third possible wave of Covid-19.”
The court’s intervention came after the state government had informed the court that a total of 45,754 beds supported by Oxygen are available in the state. 5305 ICU beds available and 4109 beds with ventilators are available. The requirement project by the Central government is much higher than that of the available facilities in the state. The centre’s projection is of 66,333 Oxygen supported beds, 13969 ICU beds and 8332 Ventilator beds. Commenting on this, the court observed, “Thus it can be said that there is a huge shortage of beds at the state level.”
