HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court took steps on Wednesday to clean its premises and told the state and its administrative machinery to leave no stone unturned to tackle the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).Chief justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan gave instructions through the registrar general to all the trial courts to not punish accused or jail authorities if the latter fail to produce accused before the court keeping in mind the HC’s appeal to lawyers to tell their clients not to come to court.“It is better to avoid gatherings of people. I am appealing to all lawyers to tell their clients not to come to courts, both the HC and trial courts,” the CJ said. “All jails must have quarantine facilities...,” he said.The CJ told advocate general B S Prasad in the morning that some doctors should be present in court from Thursday to screen all those who enter the high court premises and also to provide masks to all of them.He said some doctors should be deputed to screen those entering the court halls.The CJ also accorded permission to hear an urgent petition filed by G Siddha Lakshmi from Manikonda, in Hyderabad, seeking immediate steps to prevent the spread of Covid-19 by discouraging the celebration of Holi on March 9 and 10. A bench comprising the CJ and Justice Abhishek Reddy took up this PIL in the afternoon and directed the state to come out with a plan by Thursday to deal with the situation.Since slums are more vulnerable, the authorities must concentrate on them, the chief justice said. He also directed the DGP to review all permissions given by the police for huge public meetings in view of the emerging situation. And this is applicable to Holi festival organisers too, he said.Senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy offered some suggestions based on the model followed by the UK government, which is deputing medical teams and officials to schools to educate children and teachers about Covid-19. “Instead of earmarking isolation wards in hospitals, there should be two or three hospitals that should be designated and all suspected patients should be shifted to these hospitals, because the isolation wards in these hospitals are making the whole hospital suspect,” he said.The case was posted to Thursday for further hearing.