NEW DELHI: On a PIL voicing concerns about doctors, medical staff and health workers falling prey to Covid-19 while being on the frontline treating patients during the pandemic, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta to give details of Centre's action plan on providing WHO-approved personal protection equipment (PPE) to them.A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah, without issuing notice to the Centre, asked Nagpur-based medical practitioner Jerryl Banait's counsel Sunil Fernandes and Astha Sharma to serve a copy of the petition on the solicitor general with a direction to him to respond to the demand for supply of adequate number of PPEs to all 'health providers', as the bench chose to refer to doctors and medical staff treating Covid-19 patients.The petitioner sought a direction from SC to the Union health ministry and Director General of Health Services (DGHS) to "ensure availability of World Health Organisation graded protective gear, including Hazmat (Hazardous material) suits, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including sterile medical/Nitrile gloves, starch apparels, medical masks, goggles, face shield, respirators (i.e., N – 95 Respirator Mask or Triple Layer Medical Mask or equivalent), shoe covers, head covers and coveralls / gowns to all Health Workers including doctors, nurses, ward boys, other medical and para-medical professionals actively attending to, and treating patients suffering from COVID-19 in India, not just in Metro Cities, but also in Tier-2 and Tier–3 cities." Dr Banait also requested the SC to "issue necessary directives to the States to set up COVID-19 special screening centres in smaller towns and other cities and to take immediate steps to ensure effective implementation of the heath ministry 's January 25 'Guidelines for Infection Prevention and Control in Healthcare Facilities' through the National Centre for Disease Control, under the DGHS, which prescribes procedures and practices to be adopted for infection prevention and control."The petitioner said it would be in the fitness of battle against Covid-19 to direct the governments to ensure adherence to WHO's February 27 guidelines on 'Rational Use of PPE for Coronavirus Disease 2019' and Union health ministry's March 24 "Guidelines on Rational use of PPE."He said since there is no specific vaccination to prevent or cure Covid-19 and it is imperative for doctors to be in constant contact with patients to monitor them, "absence of appropriate protective gear would put doctors at the risk of getting infected by the virus while discharging their duties." It is the duty of the States to ensure graded protective gear to doctors and other welfare facilities, so as to aid them in combating the pandemic," he said."In the case, where hospitals and health centres are not provided with WHO standardized masks and gowns, medical staff mortality will exponentially increase and the situation will spiral out of control in the absence of sufficient medical assistance," Banait said and cited the case of a doctor admitted to Jalgaon Government Medical College after being turned away from four private hospitals, and now on the ventilator battling for life.