Three days after the Gujarat High Court refused to accept the state government’s submission that ‘things are under control’ amidst the rising COVID19 cases, it stated that if Gujarat took steps before the PIL was registered, situation would have been better.

“If state had taken steps, not that the State was sleeping, but if there was a push, if all of this had been done earlier, before the PIL was registered, situation would have been better,” Vikram Nath, chief justice, Gujarat High Court was quoted as saying during the hearing.

Also Read: India crosses the 200,000 threshold of daily COVID19 infections since the pandemic began

The court had come down heavily on the state government during the first hearing on the suo motu PIL petition on April 12 and had asked the state government to file a detailed affidavit by April 15 on the measures the authorities were employing to impede the surging cases in the state.

Replying to the chief justice’s remarks, Attorney General Kamal Trivedi said, “We had decided to start constructing a hospital in March, PIL gave push. Testing reduced, everyone thought situation was better. Of course we were planning, but now situation has worsened exponentially.”

The court also questioned the state government about the Remdesevir drug.

“You have Remdesivir but it is being hoarded. Submit report on Remdesivir stocks, when it should administered. WHO (World Health Organisation) has different concept, ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) has another, state has different concept, people don’t know (its use),” the Chief Justice said.

“Unnecessarily Remdesivir has been made ‘amrit‘,” he added.

AG Trivedi informed court that remdesivir is a not recognised as a drug under the law but its emergency use was allowed and therefore its use was permitted.

Also Read: Pulses, edible oil, eggs, meat, fish… retail inflation rises to four month high

Gujarat reported the highest spike of 7,410 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours while a record 73 patients died, the state health department said on Wednesday.

The total count of infections in Gujarat has reached 3,67,616 while the death toll rose to 4,995, the department said in a release.

Of the 73 fatalities, 25 deaths occurred each in Surat and Ahmedabad districts, while 9 patients died in Rajkot, 7 in Vadodara, 2 each in Sabarkantha and Junagadh, and one each in Amreli, Dang and Gandhinagar, it said.

The state presently has 39,250 active cases.

This is a developing report; more details are awaited.