India News | COVID-19: HC Asks Delhi Govt to Consult ICMR, Publish Standards for Blood Sample Collection

New Delhi, Feb 21 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has asked the Delhi government to consult with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and publish the requisite standards on the collection of blood samples for COVID-related tests.

The court said the ICMR will highlight, on its website, how much blood sample is permitted to be collected for conducting the COVID-related tests.

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"Let the Delhi government in consultation with the ICMR publish the requisite standards within one week," Justice Najmi Waziri said in an order passed on February 14 and uploaded on its website on Monday.

The court was hearing a petition by Dr Rohit Jain seeking contempt action against the authorities for not adhering to the court's earlier direction to take action against online health service aggregators which are operating illegally and collecting samples for COVID-19 tests.

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His counsel submitted that in so far as the aggregators rendering service in Delhi apropos COVID related tests are concerned, there is no monitoring of it by the Delhi government and the service providers who may be located outside the national capital are operating without any supervision by any authority statutory agency or government.

Such unbridled commercial activity could have unfortunate consequences upon the health and safety of citizens, the counsel said.

The court's order came after advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that there is no clarification apropos any standards as to the collection of such sample and requisite quantum of the blood that should be drawn for the tests to be conducted.

The court noted that there is no mechanism of oversight by the State government, relating to the collection of blood samples in Delhi for tests.

"It would be in the fitness of things that a re-assurance to the residents of Delhi if the Delhi government were to formulate and operationalise a regime for surprise checks, inspections, and audits as may be appropriate," it said.

The court said this should be done to ensure that the services are being rendered by persons qualified to collect the samples, they are properly stored, samples reach the laboratories within the stipulated time, and tests are also conducted in time.

It said it should be ensured that the test report is then promptly disseminated to the parties concerned.

"In view of the exigent circumstances, this timeline and methodology could well be formulated by the Delhi government under its executive powers including under the National Disaster Management Act, 2005," the judge said.

The petitioner's counsel had urged the court to allow the contempt plea and restrain the illegal online health service aggregators, which are not authorised to collect diagnostic samples for COVID-19 tests, from further committing contempt of order passed by the court last year.

The ICMR, in its affidavit filed in response to the petition, had said that NABL certification is a must for enrollment of private labs for COVID-19 testing and NABL certifies the readiness of labs to undertake molecular testing of SARS-Cov-2 before the research body allows them for testing.

Regarding the online health service aggregators, the ICMR has said monitoring of their activities does not come under its purview.

The Supreme Court had on April 8, 2020, directed that COVID-19 tests must be carried out in NABL-accredited labs or any agencies approved by the WHO or ICMR.

A division bench of the high court, on August 6, 2020, had directed the AAP government to take action in accordance with law against online health service aggregators, who are operating illegally without any registration, after hearing all the stakeholders.

The petition claimed that this rampant illegal sample collection by online health service aggregators is leading to false-negative COVID-19 results thereby letting loose the coronavirus positive patients in the society and hence, unfortunately, allowing them to transmit or spread the virus.

It said there is an urgent need to restrain the online health aggregators from collecting the diagnostic samples illegally to save innocent people in the interest of the public at large and action may be initiated against them as directed by the court on August 6 last year.

It has sought initiation of contempt proceedings against the top government officials and others for alleged non-compliance with the high court's order asking to take action and regulate online pathological labs.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)