Deplorable condition of COVID-19 quarantine centre at Sultanpuri, PIL claims in HC

A PIL in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday claimed that the quarantine centre at Sultanpuri here for COVID-19 patients is ''unhygienic'', ''uninhabitable'' and lacks medical professionals to monitor them.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh did not pass any order as the court fees had not been paid by the petitioner, a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The court said it will take up the matter only after the court fee is paid and listed the matter for hearing on May 17.

The petitioner-student has said in her plea that she tested COVID-19 positive while staying on the JNU campus and since there was no quarantine facility in the university premises, she was transferred to the Sultanpuri Isolation Centre.

''To the utter shock of the petitioner who had tested COVID-19 and was suffering from fever, acute body ache and weakness, the quarantine centre was unhygienic and no facilities were given to the patients,'' the petition has alleged.

During her four day of stay at the centre, she found that ''patients at the quarantine facility were suffering severely not only on account of their illness but also due to the negligence of the government authorities in providing them with basic facilities like sanitation, food, medicines, clean mattresses and blankets, regular doctor visits, proper monitoring of oxygen, etc''.

She has also alleged in her plea that ''not a single person visits these wards, be it a doctor, nurse or any ward officials''. ''The patients manage everything on their own. No doctor or a nurse visits the patients to check their vitals, temperature and oxygen levels. All of them have to come to the ground floor of the building to get checked and to obtain basic medicines. ''Most of the time, the patients have to wait in a line, sometimes even for an hour in the scorching sun to obtain basic medicines..,'' the petition has further claimed.

The petitioner has sought appointing of a court commissioner to visit the quarantine facility at Sultanpuri and directions to the Delhi government ''to follow the recommendation issued by WHO and the guidelines issued by NCDC for implementing quarantine''.

Besides that the petitioner also seeks a clean and hygienic environment by sanitizing and disinfecting the premises, doctor visits thrice a day to the patients in their rooms, PPE kits for sanitation workers at the quarantine centres, periodic checking of oxygen levels of the patients and several other reliefs.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)