Concentrated focus required on increasing COVID-19 testing in Delhi: HC

Delhi High Court on Wednesday called for a concentrated focus on ramping up laboratory testing for COVID-19 in national capital as 1,300-odd cases are still reported daily.

high court also raised question of migrant labourers returning to Delhi after Unlockdown-3 has been declared by government and construction and industrial activity have picked up.

A bench of justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Pras asked wher equate arrangements have been me by Delhi government at borders and or places, where industries or construction sites exist in national capital, for large scale testing to detect COVID-19 cases and for segregating m without causing any inconvenience.

bench directed Delhi government to file a detailed status report on this aspect.

court said it was a matter of "great concern" that though number of COVID-19 cases were expected to climb down grually or at least remain stable below 1,000 per day in August, 2020, daily coronavirus cases have t steily reduced in Delhi.

It ted that number of cases that h touched 707, 652 and 787 on August 10, August 16 and August 17 respectively, shot up to 1,374 on August 18.

"In or words, it cant be said that number of COVID-19 cases have slowly and steily reduced in Delhi. numbers are still floating around 1,300 odd cases per day, which shows that re must be a concentrated focus on ramping up lab testing in Delhi," bench said.

Delhi government counsel Satyakam assured court that government is doing everything in its power to ensure that testing is ramped up to curb furr spre of infection.

He also informed court that second sero-surveillance undertaken in Delhi will conclude by end of this week and this time, surveillance has been conducted by Delhi government in collaboration with Dr. Maulana Az Medical College.

He said analysis of second sero-surveillance shall be placed on record well before next date of hearing, that is, August 31.

bench directed that status report shall indicate an analysis of results of first sero-surveillance vis-a-vis latest sero-surveillance for court to understand status of extent of spre of infection in Delhi.

court also perused a status report filed by Delhi government in pursuance to its earlier order, stating that a letter was written to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for clarification on manner of implementation of its visories for deploying Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) and RT/PCR test in different parts of Delhi.

ICMR has clarified that use of RAT has been approved in containment zones and Health Care settings and it has also recorded its satisfaction that Delhi government was conducting RAT and RT/PCR tests as per its guidelines, report said.

court also perused figures of testing which reveal that between July 31 to August 17, ratio of testing through RAT has steily increased in Delhi, having virtually doubled, whereas, testing through RT/PCR varies in range of 2,927 to 6,015 tests with an aver of less than 5,000 tests per day.

RT/PCR, short for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, is a laboratory technique widely used in diagsis of genetic diseases and to measure gene expression in research.

court was hearing a PIL by vocate Rakesh Malhotra seeking increasing COVID-19 testing numbers in national capital and getting speedy results.