HC rules: Everyone must be allowed to undertake Corona Test

On Saturday, the Gujarat High Court while giving a judgement on the current Covid-19 scenario, observed that everyone must be permitted to have a Covid-19 test done.

The state is in the eye of the storm for capping the per day tests and introducing the clause for private labs requiring permission of the state authorities before conducting any test.

The court stated that all laboratories able to fulfil the prescribed criteria and infrastructure must be granted the permission and must be permitted to conduct RT-PCR tests. The court also suggested that the rates for testing in private labs must have a ceiling cap – currently it is Rs 4,500.

“Everyone must be permitted to have a Covid-19 test done. However, there must be a specific mention of the following categories of persons for whom the Covid-19 test must be mandatory – those who have been hospitalized for Covid-19 and who want to have a test done post discharge from the hospital, family members of those persons who have been tested Covid-19 positive or who have been hospitalized or who have returned after hospitalization or who have died on account of Covid-19, those persons who have a written prescription issued by a doctor,” reads the order.

The bench said that the argument that ‘more number of tests which lead to 70% of the population testing positive for Covid-19, thereby leading to fear psychosis’ should not be a ground to refuse or restrict the testing.

“Wide publicity must be given by the state in the way of newspaper advertisements ...,” the order stated.

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