Several staff members of the Supreme Court of India have been infected with the coronavirus, leading the apex court justices to henceforth conduct hearings from their respective residences, news agency ANI reported. NDTV quoted sources to report that almost 50 per cent of the court staff tested positive, and that the entire court premise, including courtrooms, is being sanitised. The additional registrar also issued a notice stating that all hearings will start an hour late. "All the benches which are scheduled to sit at 10:30am will sit at 11:30am, and those scheduled to sit at 11am will sit at 12 noon," according to it.
India's COVID-19 caseload is surging by the day. The active COVID-19 cases in India breached the 11 lakh-mark for the first time after a record high of over 1.5 lakh new infections, threatening to stretch the health infrastructure to the brink, while a massive vaccination push, dubbed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the beginning of another major war against coronavirus, was launched on Sunday.
The active caseload was at its highest at 10,17,754 on September 18, 2020 and had dipped to 1,35,926 on February 12, 2021, before rising again. Five states—Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala—cumulatively account for 70.82 percent of India's active COVID-19 cases, while Maharashtra alone accounts for 48.57 percent, the Union Health Ministry said.
Amid an unprecedented burden on health infrastructure in 15 states and Delhi, which are witnessing an upward trajectory, authorities have started reserving more hospitals for COVID patients and taking steps to address any shortage of medical supplies, besides enhancing curbs on the movement of people.
The Centre announced a ban on export of Remdesivir, used in coronavirus treatment, and its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients. It also asked all domestic manufacturers to display on their website details of their stockists and distributors. There were reports of shortage of drugs from states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
-Inputs from PTI
