A week after issuing an advisory, the National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday reiterated that the government must protect the rights of people during the second wave of the pandemic.
In a statement, the NHRC said it “again emphasised that the Centre and States need to put their acts together to meet the immediacy of response by setting up universally functional COVID-19 dashboards for real-time information in public domain on the availability of hospital beds, oxygen, critical care medicines and devices”.
It said it also asked for 24/7 toll-free helplines and fixing of treatment prices. It had issued an advisory to the Health Ministry and all States and Union Territories on May 4 and sought action-taken reports within four weeks. Among the suggestions were universal vaccination, protection of frontline workers and ensuring patients’ rights.
