New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday directed hospitals in the city to "scrupulously follow" the Delhi government's circular on not to insist on COVID positive test reports before admitting patients showing symptoms of Coronavirus while hearing a PIL seeking directions to the Delhi government to order hospitals not to insist on COVID positive reports to hospitalise patients who show symptoms of coronavirus.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh also directed the Delhi government to "widely publicise" its April 23 circular on the matter.
The petitioner, Jaideep Ahuja, told the bench that the Uttar Pradesh government has passed such a direction on not insisting on RT-PCR positive test reports for admitting patients.
The Delhi government told the court that its Health department has issued a circular on April 23 directing hospitals in the city not to insist on COVID positive test reports to admit patients who are showing symptoms of coronavirus infection.
The Delhi government told the bench that such patients would be kept in a dedicated area, in hospitals, meant for suspected cases.
In addition, the bench directed the Delhi government to set up more testing centres in the city and put in place the necessary infrastructure to streamline the sample collection process. The direction was issued by the court after several lawyers told the bench that they were facing difficulty in getting tested as labs were saying they will carry out sample collection after 2-3 days.
The lawyers claimed that the number of daily tests have gone down to around 60,000 from the over one lakh tests that were being conducted earlier.