As India is witnessing a second wave of coronavirus with over 1.5 lakh cases being reported for the past few days, the COVID-19 is knocking on the Supreme Court's door, with over 50 percent of staff in the building infected.
On Saturday, 44 staff members out of the 90 who were present in the apex court premises tested positive.
Since the SC E-Committee, headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud, has already procured 1,600 video links for conducting hearings through video-conferencing, there is adequate bandwidth and links available with the apex court to avoid disruption.
Various benches will now sit an hour late than their scheduled time. Additional Registrar of the court said, "All the benches which are scheduled to sit at 10:30 am will sit at 11:30 am and those scheduled to sit at 11 am will sit at 12 noon in Supreme Court, today (Monday)."
According to the latest health ministry data, 1,68,912 new infections have been reported, the highest ever daily surge till now and up to 904 people have died of Covid-related issues in the past 24 hours. The total number of cases now stands at 1,35,27,717 with 12,01,009 active cases and the death toll at 1,70,179.
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 amid an unprecedented burden on health infrastructure in 15 states and Delhi, which are witnessing an upward trajectory.
