The Madras High Court on Monday left it to the State government to decide on carrying out long-term surveillance of those who get discharged after being treated for COVID-19. It also said the government can take a call on providing post-discharge care to them, considering the possibility of a relapse.
Disposing of a public interest litigation petition, the First Bench of Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said that in their considered opinion, it was for the discharged patients to take adequate care and avoid a recurrence of the infection.
Nevertheless, since instances of COVID-19 relapse had been reported across the world, they said they hoped that the government would take necessary steps to prevent the recurrence of the disease among discharged patients and provide post-discharge care, subject to the availability of financial resources for the purpose.
Arguing in favour of the PIL petition filed by G. Rajasekar, his counsel R. Dhinesh Kumar said the World Health Organization’s guidelines required officials to monitor the health of even those deemed fit to be discharged for quite some time, since the infection could recur at any time.
Acupuncture for patients
The Bench dismissed another PIL petition which insisted on providing acupuncture treatment to those suffering from COVID-19. It observed that it was for medical professionals, and not the court, to decide the course of treatment.
Refusing to issue a positive direction to government officials to implement the suggestions made by the litigant, Muniappan, the judges granted liberty to the petitioner to make a representation to the officials concerned and obtain the relief he had sought.
