India News | Pvt Labs Refusal to Collect Samples Onsite Not Acceptable: HC
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Delhi High Court on Thursday said it was "not acceptable" that private labs should stop onsite collection of samples or tests at such a "critical juncture" when COVID-19 numbers were "shooting up phenomenally" on a daily basis.
New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Thursday said it was "not acceptable" that private labs should stop onsite collection of samples or tests at such a "critical juncture" when COVID-19 numbers were "shooting up phenomenally" on a daily basis.
A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said if the labs are unhappy with the rates fixed for onsite collection of samples and testing, they can raise it before the committee set up by the Lieutenant Governor or the Delhi government.
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"However, it is not acceptable that the private laboratories will stop conducting onsite tests at such a critical juncture where the number of cases of COVID-19 infection are shooting up phenomenally, on a day by day basis," the bench said.
The observation by the bench came while hearing a plea by a lawyer, Rakesh Malhotra, on increasing the testing numbers in the national capital and getting speedy results.
In the matter, the Delhi government, through its additional standing counsel Satyakam, filed an affidavit indicating that it has complied with the court''s direction of June 25 to implement recommendations of the committee set up by the LG.
The high court in its June 25 order had also called for an action plan on ramping up tests in the national capital and had directed the Delhi government to endorse the advisory of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for increasing tests through both private and public sector labs.
The Delhi government said it has adopted the ICMR advisory and on the action plan to ramp up testing, it said that the Rapid Antigen Detection Test (RADT) was being used increasingly as a "frontline test".
"In cases of symptomatic individuals reported as negative in the RADT, the RT PCR based molecular testing is being undertaken. Due to the aforesaid procedure that has been adopted, testing through RT PCR testing is expected to decrease," Satyakam told the bench during the hearing.
RT/PCR, short for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, is a laboratory technique widely used in the diagnosis of genetic diseases and to measure gene expression in research.
He also told the high court that ''sero-surveillance'' has been started in Delhi on June 27 and would continue till July 5 during which period a total of 21,793 rapid random samples would be collected from across the state and the results would be made public within one week thereafter.
He further told the bench that till July 1 there were 433 containment zones in the city and within them 167 point of care camps have been set up for testing purposes.
"Besides the above, about 30 government hospitals have been provided user credentials in the past 24 hours to undertake the RADT, out of which 20 government hospitals have started the process. It is also proposed that the RADT test would be conducted for free at all government dispensaries," he told the court.
After perusing the testing data submitted by the Delhi government, the high court directed it to file a status report indicating in a tabulated form the number of antibody tests carried out under the ''sero-surveillance'' initiative from June 26 to July 5.
"The number of RADT tests, RT/PCR test, CBNAAT and TrueNat tests for the above period shall also be filed," the bench said.
Cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) is a recently introduced polymerase chain raction (PCR) based method for detection of TB.
TrueNat is an indigenously developed portable version of CBNAAT and was also meant for detecting tuberculosis (TB).
Direction was also issued to ICMR to file an affidavit indicating how many private hospitals and labs have approached it for authorization to undertake RADT and to clarify the actual number of tests undertaken for residents of Delhi on a daily basis.
The high court also asked ICMR to ensure that an officer competent to assist the court is present in the hearings as its counsel were unable to answer some of the queries of the bench.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on July 14.
(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)