Telangana High Court on Friday sought to know from the State government as to why it adopted the strategy of conducting coronavirus confirmation tests only for persons showing some primary symptoms.
Hearing a PIL plea filed by retired university professor P.L. Vishweshwar Rao, the HC said it wanted to know what scientific reasons prompted the government to go for such strategy. Citing press reports, the bench noted that government was conducting COVID tests only on those who have show symptoms like cough or temperature.
If the government tackles coronavirus with that policy, the data would not be realistic and reliable to ascertain if the virus was spreading more or under control, the bench noted. “If the number of all coronavirus patients goes unreported, then it seems the the State is juggling with the statistics of COVID patients which will be liking fooling people,” the bench observed.
Responding to the bench’s observation, Advocate General B.S. Prasad said he would secure specific instructions on the issue from the government. He replied that the doctors were discharging their duties as per Central and ICMR guidelines.
But WHO guidelines do not say that testing should be done only for persons showing symptoms. All primary contacts and close contacts of a person who tests positive should be subjected to diagnostic tests. All of them need to be quarantined, the bench said.
“Telangana government should make a reality check. If we do not attempt reality, then we are painting a wrong picture of everyone,” said the Chief Justice. The petitioner’s lawyer Chikkudu Prabhakar told the bench that government was not taking steps to go for testing all persons in containment zones.
There were over 70 such zones earlier but now it has come down to 32. “There could be 35- 40 lakh people living in containment zones. If tests are conducted on all of them, hidden cases would be brought to the fore,” he contended. Mr. Prabhakar said failure to go for large-scale testing resulted in spurt of COVID positive cases in Malakpet and Vanasthalipuram in Hyderabad.
Underlining the importance of large-scale diagnostic tests to ascertain COVID cases, the bench said even US president Donald Trump was subjected to the tests after one of his valets (US Navy member) tested positive for the virus.
