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

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

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

A bench of justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad asked whether adequate arrangements have been made by the Delhi government at the borders and other places, where industries or construction sites exist in the national capital, for large scale testing to detect COVID-19 cases and for segregating them without causing any inconvenience.

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

The court said it was a matter of "great concern" that though the number of COVID-19 cases were expected to climb down gradually or at least remain stable below 1,000 per day in August, 2020, the daily coronavirus cases have not steadily reduced in Delhi.

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

"In other words, it cannot be said that the number of COVID-19 cases have slowly and steadily reduced in Delhi. The numbers are still floating around 1,300 odd cases per day, which shows that there must be a concentrated focus on ramping up lab testing in Delhi," the bench said.

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

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

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

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

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

The 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, the report said.

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

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.

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