Devise ways to give COVID-19 medics rotational breaks: SC to govt

Supreme Court. File pic

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the government to devise a mechanism to give rotational breaks to doctors and healthcare personnel, who have been working continuously since April.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, to look into the matter as doctors and health care personnel are at the forefront of fighting Covid-19 pandemic. Mehta said the Centre will take a decision on this issue within two days.

Earlier, the top court had emphasized that it is essential to give a break to doctors and health care personnel who are involved in fighting the pandemic.

The Supreme Court also asked the Union Territories and the state governments to form committees to undertake fire safety audit of all hospitals, including exclusive Covid care facilities, every month.

The bench observed that each state government must appoint a nodal officer, who should be responsible for the fire safety for hospitals.

The bench added that these nodal officers, including in Covid hospitals, should ensure strict adherence to fire safety norms, and those hospitals, which do not have fire safety standards NOCs must get it as soon as possible or else, otherwise strong action will be taken against them.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had expressed displeasure at the repeated constitution of committees to probe the fire incidents at two private Covid hospitals -- Rajkot and Ahmedabad -- in Gujarat. The top court directed Gujarat to file the report into these incidents.

The observations from the top court came while hearing a suo moto case regarding the treatment of Covid patients and the dignified handling of the dead bodies of people who had Covid-19.

Keep scrolling to read more news

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever