CUTTACK: Hearing a PIL filed on issues concerning Covid-19 care and treatment in the state, the Orissa high court has directed the Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, has set five questions for additional chief secretary of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, to answer.
The two-judge bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice B P Routray directed Mohapatra to present the information of Kalahandi and Nabarangpur districts in the form of an affidavit by September 14. The PIL filed by one Sanjiv Joshi had sought the court’s intervention for availability of RT-PCR testing facilities at the rural and block levels across the state.
The HC wanted to know the extent of the availability of health facilities, both public and private, in each of the 30 districts in Odisha, number of RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen test kits available in each of these districts, number of ASHA workers or other paramedical staff trained for the tests. It also wanted to know the time lag between the taking of a RT-PCR and/or Rapid Antigen test in the rural areas and the availability of the result, the ground reality regarding persons having to pay for the tests in a private facility and the statistics in this regard district-wise.
“The affidavit shall also present a ‘health map’ of the above-mentioned two districts, marking the locations where both public and private health facilities are available and where the RTPCR and Rapid Antigen Tests can be undertaken,” the Bench said.
