Editorial: Timely judicial intervention
The court’s role in the constitution of the task force must be viewed as a well-meaning attempt to help the government
The constitution of a national task force to streamline the process for oxygen allocation is a welcome development, but there is a plethora of other larger issues related to the pandemic management that demand urgent action from the Centre. The government’s inept handling of the oxygen distribution logistics had resulted in a huge crisis and avoidable deaths of patients due to lack of oxygen supply. The apex court has done the right thing by insisting on the formation of a 12-member task force, comprising experts, to improve the allocation of the life-saving resource, and also framing terms of reference for the task force to keep it focused. The court’s role in the constitution of the task force must not be viewed as interference with the functioning of the executive but as a well-meaning attempt to chip in when the Centre and States have been overwhelmed by the second wave of the Covid-19. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the NDA government has failed on multiple fronts — oxygen supply chains, availability and access to basic medicines, hospital beds, treatment protocols, data systems and vaccinations. Unfortunately, it did not have any dedicated advance plan in place to handle the second wave of infections, though experts had warned about such a scenario. Gaining admission into a hospital with an ICU bed is one of the biggest challenges being faced by several Covid-19 patients across the country. There are no uniform admission protocols nor is there a proper coordination with the States.
In the next few months, as the virus spreads across small towns and rural India, the country is likely to confront even greater suffering. Scientists predict that the daily infections may peak at 4 lakh to 5 lakh by the middle of this month. Despite such a grim scenario, the Centre’s vaccination policy or the measures it has outlined to tackle the ongoing second wave offer much by way of reassurance. For instance, the plan to float a global tender for supplying 50,000 tonnes of medical oxygen lacks a sense of urgency because this route would take three months for the delivery. Mass vaccination in the shortest possible time is the only way to win the battle against the virus. There is already a huge gap between the number of people who registered for the vaccines and those who got the slots. The total number of registrations on CoWIN portal is over 19 crore while the number of doses being administered per day, including first and second dose, has fallen to 20 lakh from a high of over 40 lakh doses in early April. At the current pace, it would take three months to vaccinate just those who have registered till now.
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