The Supreme Court has established a 12-member National Task Force to determine the availability and delivery of medical oxygen across the country on a research, fair, and equal basis.
The task force would also propose steps to ensure the equally rational and equal supply of drugs used to treat COVID-19, as well as include inputs based on members’ science and specialized expertise, to address other issues posed by the Covid pandemic.
According to sources, the two-judge bench that issued the order – Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah – met with each member of the task force, which will begin work within a week.
Reports will be sent to both the centre and the judge.
“The aim of forming a national Task Force is to promote public health response to the pandemic focused on science and specialized domain expertise. We anticipate that leading experts in the world will join the Task Force as stakeholders and resource persons “According to the court.
“It would encourage a conference of minds and the formulation of scientific solutions to cope with an ongoing human tragedy,” the court wrote in its decision.
Two of the 12 members will be elected officials, and the convenor will be a Cabinet Secretary.
The top court ordered the task force’s formation on Friday, as it called for a rethinking of the center’s distribution of oxygen to various states. According to the court, the center refused to take into account issues such as ambulances, lower-level Covid treatment centers, and patients under home quarantine.
“We need to look at the problem on a national scale…an oxygen audit is needed. What happens after the stocks are released?” The court had inquired.
The court also asked whether the center was preparing for a potential third Covid wave, which might exacerbate the urgent shortage of oxygen, medications, and hospital beds.
India is dealing with a crippling wave of coronavirus cases; over four lakh new cases were identified in the last 24 hours as of this morning. The number of active Covid cases in the country has now surpassed 37 lakh, almost quadrupling the previous record from September of last year.
According to the center, oxygen has become a critical medical necessity because increasingly more people are suffering from shortness of breath as a result of this surge of infections.
The shortage resulted in panicked SOSs from Delhi hospitals and terrified relatives of patients running around, often on the black market, to obtain oxygen cylinders on their own.
Last week, 12 patients died at a private hospital due to a lack of oxygen.
It also prompted the Delhi government to seek relief from the Delhi High Court, in which the Supreme Court took up the case and asked the center to give 700 MT of oxygen every day.
“You will be required to donate 700 tonnes to Delhi (700 tonnes dena hi padega)… The center is now being chastised for failing to provide 700 tonnes of oxygen to Delhi “According to the court.
This week, the Supreme Court ruled against the Centre in a case involving Karnataka, which had requested an expanded oxygen supply.
