ahmedabad on a day when gujarat recorded its highest ever 54 covid deaths on sunday the gujarat high court chief justice vikram nath filed suo motu pil over uncontrolled upsurge and gross management issues in covid19 control in the state with the observation that news reports indicate the state is heading towards a health emergency of sortsthe hearing is posted on monday before the bench of justice nath and justice bhargav karia the suo motu pil comes on heels of the hcs failed request to the state government to impose short lockdown to control the covid19 situation which is going from bad to worsein an order the cj cited various news reports and said newspapers and news channels are flooded with harrowing tales unfortunate and unimaginable difficulties unmanageable conditions of the infrastructure the shortfall and the deficit of not only testing availability of beds icu but also supply of oxygen and the basic medicines like remdesivir etc it is the time that the court must intervenevirus mutation causing covid surgeover a year into the pandemic the situation seems to be turning from bad to worse in gujarat of the highest ever 54 deaths recorded in a day 38 or 70 deaths were recorded in ahmedabad 20 and surat 18 districtsin the past two days the state lost 103 patients to put the figure in perspective from january 1to april 9 gujarat had recorded deaths of 99 patientsin surat kin of covid19 victims resorted to spraying diesel and kerosene instead of traditional ghee on the pyres for faster burning of bodies dry wood has become scarce due to the flood of dead at crematoriums and green logs dont burn fullyi know this is disrespectful but we are helpless there is waiting for cremating covid19 dead and green wood does not burn fully if inflammable is not used said arjun patel a resident of udhnadr maharshi desai critical care specialist and member of the stateappointed covid19 task force said mortality rate is same or slightly higher compared to the last surge in wake of a huge number of positive cases mortality continues to be higher in the age group of 45 and 70 years and people with comorbidities he saidrecently the task force members said virus mutation has rendered it both more infectious and virulent experts noted early onset of severity and higher infection rate among the working population 25 to 60 years many are reporting relatively higher viral load compared to earlier two waves experienced by gujarat they said