The Delhi Lieutenant Governor on June 12 constituted a high-level expert committee which includes the ICMR Director General to suggest effective steps to deal with the pandemic as cases continue to rise with the day reporting the highest spike in 24 hours so far with 2,137 more patients.

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The move comes on a day the Supreme Court tore into the Delhi government over the sorry state of affairs" for treatment of COVID-19 patients at its hospitals in New Delhi and also decreased testing, calling the situation in the national capital "horrendous, horrific and pathetic".

A day before, the Delhi High Court had observed that the national capital was heading towards becoming the corona capital of the country. With 2,137 fresh instances, the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 36,824, the health department's bulletin said. Seventy-one deaths were reported as the toll reached 1,214.

The six-member panel also includes National Disaster Management Authority members Krishna Vatsa and Kamal Kishore; Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) DG Balram Bhargava, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, DGHS Additional DDG Dr Ravindran and National Centre for Disease Control Director Surjit Kumar Singh.

The development comes two days after the Chief Minister had met the Union Home Minister and both the leaders discussed the COVID-19 situation in Delhi. The Delhi Health Minister had on June 12 described the crisis as a "war-like situation" and asserted that the city government will try every means available to get more doctors and medical staff to meet the ever-increasing requirement. Interacting with reporters on June 12, he rejected the possibility of re-imposing the lockdown. The lockdown in Delhi will no longer be extended, he said. "The high-level panel will advise the DDMA on various aspects of COVID-19 management, including integration of measures being taken by various agencies for effective mitigation. It would also help in formulating a practical approach to effectively deal with the COVID-19 crisis," sources said.

Later, the LG office issued a statement saying the panel would also provide examples from global and national best practices. "The LG stated the efforts being made by DDMA need to be bolstered by concerted planning, use of latest technology, efficient monitoring and seamless coordination among various agencies to overcome the challenge," the statement said. Earlier in the day, the LG headed a DDMA meeting with the Delhi Chief Minister, the Health Minister and other senior Delhi government officials.

The chairman of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said ramping up bed capacity and medical resources should be the topmost priority in handling the COVID-19 situation to ensure that a surge in coronavirus cases does not overwhelm the city's healthcare system. "Our objective is to break the chain of transmission and reduce the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19," the LG said.

Making strong observations on the state of hospitals in Delhi, a bench of three Justices questioned the Delhi government over conducting fewer COVID tests and asked Why has your testing gone down from 7,000 to 5,000 a day? It has sought responses from the Centre and different states on its plea taking suo motu (on its own) cognisance on the treatment being meted out to patients and the handling of bodies.

Hospitals are not giving due care to keeping bodies and not even informing family members about deaths, as a result they are unable to attend the last rites, the top court said. In its defence, the AAP dispensation said this is an extraordinary situation and the Delhi government is trying its best from the very first day to set up better infrastructure and to provide quality healthcare to all COVID-19 patients.

The Delhi government is determined to provide health care for all and to ensure best possible treatment to each COVID-19 patient. But, if there are any gaps that still remain and are brought to our notice, we will act on them sincerely and immediately, a government statement said. The court also took serious note of instances of non-payment of salaries to doctors treating COVID-19 patients and said the country cannot afford to have dissatisfied soldiers in the war against the pandemic, and asked authorities to go the extra mile to raise funds for them. In war, you do not make soldiers unhappy. Travel an extra mile and channel some extra money to address their grievances. Country cannot afford to have dissatisfied soldiers in this war which is being fought against corona, the court said.

The Delhi High Court also directed the North Delhi Municipal Corporation to pay by June 19 the salary for March to resident doctors in its six hospitals, including Kasturba Gandhi and Hindu Rao. The Chairman of the Standing Committee of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation which runs Hindu Rao Hospital and Kasturba Hospital, said, "the matter is being resolved". Slamming the AAP government, opposition BJP and Congress said the Supreme Court has "shown a mirror" to AAP government in Delhi over its shortcomings in dealing with the pandemic.