New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS): The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions for the Centre and Delhi government to submit their plans to contain the pandemic, in view of the rising cases of the Omicron variant, including the preparedness for Oxygen and other essential items.

Hearing the plea, the bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh said the present situation of the pandemic is getting better in the national capital. "We are dealing with a declining number of cases now, hospital beds are vacant and you are filing this frivolous petition now," the court said.

Following the court's refusal of the plea, Adv Rudra Vikram Singh withdrew the petition.

With the plea, Congress leader Jagdish Sharma had approached the court through Adv Rudra Vikram Singh and Adv Manish Kumar, seeking postponement of the upcoming Assembly elections in five states. Seeking direction from the Election Commission to postpone the polls for some months, the plea also prayed for a mandatory quarantine of people returning from poll-bound States.

The plea contended that the Head of the World Health Organisation has already warned all the countries that Omicron is more transmissible and more resistant to treatment than other variants. "Dr Tedros of the WHO warned that while Omicron does appear to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorised as 'mild'," it read.

It stated that the country has faced two variants of COVID-19 in the last two years and the country has lost 4,84,213 lives due to COVID-19 as per government record.