Court Asks Uttarakhand To Audit Covid Deaths During Second Wave

The High Court suggested setting up a panel of ASHA volunteers, home guards and nurses to carry out a door-to-door survey to ensure that the "dispersed" population in hill areas is vaccinated.

The Uttarakhand High Court has asked the state government to conduct an audit of the deaths that occurred during the second wave of coronavirus in the state, and also explore the possibility of carrying out door-to-door vaccination in remote hill areas. Hearing petitions related to the state's handling of the pandemic, Chief Justice R S Chauhan and Justice Alok Verma asked the state government on Wednesday if a district-level task force can be constituted with the help of the social welfare department to cater to people who are unable to get their immunisation due to lack of ID cards. Asking the state government to explore the possibility of creating a system that reaches out to people in the remote hill areas on priority, the High Court suggested setting up a panel of ASHA volunteers, home guards and nurses to carry out a door-to-door survey to ensure that the "dispersed" population in such areas is vaccinated. Besides asking the state to conduct an audit of COVID-19 deaths during the second wave, the court also asked it to conduct an audit of ventilators and ICU equipment available in government hospitals in the state to find out how many ventilators and equipment are lying un-utilised and the reason for it.