The counsel for the central government submitted that there is no bar on repeating RT-PCR in their guidelines.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that if no guidelines are issued by the Centre, it expects the city government to expeditiously consider the issue of early re-testing of international passengers who test positive. COVID-19 Upon arrival.
Justice Rekha Palli, who was hearing a plea by a mother whose 18-year-old son from the United Kingdom was admitted to a private hospital here for isolation after testing positive for the virus on his arrival, also asked Delhi Government Why the genome sequencing report of the patient – who was reported to be positive for the Omicron variant – cannot be shared with him.
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The judge said that during the pendency of the petition, the petitioner’s son tested negative and was discharged from Fortis Hospital.
The petitioner told the court that though her son is with her now, several other patients were being kept in different health facilities for several days as the hospital was not receiving treatment. COVID-19 Re-test from time to time. It was also argued that the mother has a “right to know” and thus should be given her son’s genome sequencing report.
“It is expected that in case no guidelines are issued by the Union of India, the Delhi Government will consider the matter expeditiously so that patients like the petitioner’s son do not suffer. Delhi Government will also state that the Genome Test Report Why might it be?” will not be made available,” the judge ordered.
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The petitioner, represented by advocate Vikram Hegde, had moved the court last month to know the results of the genome sequencing test conducted on his son.
The lawyer for the hospital said that while COVID-19 The patient has been given the test report, the genome sequencing report, which revealed that the presence of the Omicron variant was not given to him as it was only with government officials.
“We do not have a copy of the genome report. Advocate Arjun Dewan, appearing for Fortis, said, “We get an excel sheet (from the officials).
Responding to the petitioner’s claim that the hospital was not conducting any re-testing on his son when he was admitted, the counsel submitted that the hospital administration was only following the Delhi government’s direction to allow international passengers to test positive for the virus. Will happen. Tested again on the tenth day of the first test or three days after being asymptomatic, whichever is later.
Delhi government’s counsel Arun Panwar submitted that the direction is in line with the guidelines issued by the Center and has sought time to take the directions.
Central government counsel Bharti Raju submitted that there is no bar on repeating RT-PCR in their guidelines.
The High Court had on December 29 sought response of the Center and the Delhi government on the petition and said that the protocol imposed by the authorities should be followed, the petitioner mother was entitled to know the result of the genome test which was not a national secret. ,
The petitioner had alleged that his son, who tested positive for COVID-19 at the airport here after his arrival from the United Kingdom, was not being discharged by the hospital due to lack of clarity on the type of virus.
She had claimed that despite her son being a mild case of COVID-19, the private hospital was not testing him again.
The court had directed Fortis Hospital to take on record the genome sequencing test report and also asked it to conduct RT-PCR test again on the patient.
The court further asked the private hospital to supply the copy of both the report, genome sequencing and RT-PCR to the petitioner as well as the Central and Delhi governments.
The Center had told the court that the Delhi government is managing the entire scenario and as per the guidelines, the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has provided the report to the state government, which is to be communicated to the patient.
When asked by the court whether the genome test report is a confidential document as it was not shared with the patient, the Centre’s counsel replied in the negative. The court was earlier informed that samples should be mandatorily sent for genome testing of the virus in case of positive cases at the international airport.
The next hearing of the case will be on January 14.
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