“We are at pain in observing that death of Covid patients just for non supplying of oxygen to the hospitals is a criminal act and not less than a genocide by those who have been entrusted the task to ensure continuous procurement and supply chain of the liquid medical oxygen,” read the order by a bench of Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Siddhartha Varma.

“Phase three is inevitable given the higher levels of circulating virus, but it is not clear on what time-scale this phase three will occur.We should be prepared for new waves,” said K Vijay Raghavan, the principal scientific advisor to the Centre.