The Supreme Court on 18 December asked the government to devise a mechanism to give rotational breaks to doctors and healthcare personnel, who have been working continuously since April.

A bench headed by the Justice asked the Solicitor General, representing the Centre, to look into the matter as doctors and health care personnel are at the forefront of fighting COVID-19 pandemic. The Solicitor General said the Centre will take a decision on this issue within two days.

Earlier, the top court had emphasised that it is essential to give a break to doctors and health care personnel who are involved in fighting the pandemic. The Supreme Court also asked the Union Territories and the state governments to form committees to undertake fire safety audit of all hospitals, including exclusive COVID care facilities, every month.

The bench observed that each state government must appoint a nodal officer, who should be responsible for the fire safety for hospitals. The bench added that these nodal officers, including in COVID hospitals, should ensure strict adherence to fire safety norms, and those hospitals, which do not have fire safety standards NOCs must get it as soon as possible or else, otherwise strong action will be taken against them.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had expressed displeasure at the repeated constitution of committees to probe the fire incidents at two private COVID hospitals -- Rajkot and Ahmedabad -- in Gujarat. The top court directed Gujarat to file the report into these incidents. The observations from the top court came while hearing a suo moto case regarding the treatment of COVID patients and the dignified handling of the dead bodies of people who had COVID-19.