Concerned By "Sky-rocketing" COVID Cases, Telangana HC Directs State To Increase Daily Samples, Test Direct, High-Risk Contacts [Read Order]

Naming it "a cause of concern", the Telangana High Court on Thursday observed that "immediately the spread of the Coronavirus should be controlled by the Government". "Before the Government can plan the strategy for controlling the Coronavirus, the first step that needs to be taken is to increase the number of samples per day", said the Chief Justice-led bench. The Court noted that undoubtedly, in its initial endeavour to control the spread of Covid-l9, the Government had succeeded to a certain extent. Initially, while the media reports claimed that covid-l9 had spread its tentacles to twenty-three districts, subsequent media reports claimed that the number of districts suffering from covid-I9 cases had decreased. Considering the positive turn of events, the Government, in its wisdom, had decided to roll-back the lockdown which had been imposed on the State since March, 24. However, unfortunately, with the rolling back of the lockdown, in a controlled and calibrated manner, the number of Covid-l9 positive cases have skyrocketed in the last three weeks. According to the Media Bulletin, dated 17.06.2020, 269 cases have been discovered in a single day, with more districts beginning to show increase in number of Covid-I9 cases. Accordingly, the Court on Wednesday directed the government to increase the number of samples being tested on a daily basis. "The Government should also consider the use of Rapid Antigen Detection Test as recommended by the ICMR. In compliance of the ICMR guidelines those who have been closely in contact with a Covid-19 patient should be tested once between day 5 and day l0 of coming into contact with such patient, For, it seems that despite the guidelines issued by the ICMR the said guideline is not being implemented by the State", ordered the Court. Besides, taking note of the claim of the state's Health Department in its report dated June 17 that it is difficult to carry out the RT-PCR test, a test which has been successfully carried out in the State of Kerala, the Court called upon the Director to explain the difficulties being faced by the State in using the said tests. It was urged before the Court that in the report submitted by the Health Department on Wednesday, the State has declared that it will carry out 50,000 Covid-I9 tests just in ten days across the area of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the surrounding districts. Thus, if 50.000 samples were to be taken just in ten days, it would require that at least 5,000 tests need to be carried out on a daily basis. However, the Media Bulletin dated 16,06,2020 clearly states that only 1251 samples were tested, and the Media Bulletin dated 17.06.2020 reveals that only 1096 samples were tested, Thus, in two days only 2,347 samples were taken, whereas 10,000 samples should have been taken in two days. Hence, according to the documents submitted by the State, the testing is hopelessly low from the target set by the State itself. Secondly, it was pointed out that according to the National Data available, as on 16.06.2020, the State of Maharashtra has tested 5496 persons per million; Gujarat has tested 2448 persons per million; even the neighbouring State of Andhra Pradesh has tested 10,865 persons per million. Yet, the Telangana State has tested merely 761 persons per million. Thus, the testing being carried out in the State is too little. "Although in the Report dated 17.06.2020, the Government claims that it will be carrying out 50,000/- tests in the coming ten days, but according to the Media Bulletin issued on 16.06,2020 and 17.06.2020, the number of samples being tested is roughly 1500 cases. As pointed out (...), in order to achieve the target of 50,000 tests within ten days, the sampling has to be minimum of 5000 cases per day. Therefore, obviously, the samples being taken by the Government are far below the target established by the Government itself", reflected the bench. The Court proceeded to remark that "Even if the target of completing 50,000 samples within ten days is claimed to be a reasonable one by the State, even then, as pointed out above, the sampling is too low to be able to achieve the target within the short period of ten days". Furthermore, it was argued that according to the recent most guidelines issued by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) dated 18.05.2020, "all symptomatic (ILI symptoms) health care workers/frontline workers involved in containment and mitigation of Covid-l9" and "asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of A confirmed case to be tested once between day 5 and day 10 of coming into contacl".However, there is no evidence that has been produced by the State to show that these two guidelines, especially the second guideline dealing with the "asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case" is, indeed, being carried out by the State. The bench required the Department to inform this Court whether this particular guideline issued by the...

Concerned By "Sky-rocketing" COVID Cases, Telangana HC Directs State To Increase Daily Samples, Test Direct, High-Risk Contacts [Read Order]

Mehal Jain

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