Delhi HC directs hospitals to not insist on Covid report during admission

In light of the unprecedented increase in the covid-19 cases in the national capital, the Delhi High Court on Monday directed hospitals to “scrupulously follow” the AAP government’s circular on not to insist on COVID positive test reports before admitting patients showing 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 order came while disposing of 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. The petitioner, Jaideep Ahuja, told the bench that the Uttar Pradesh government has passed such a direction on not insisting on RTPCR 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 High Court also called on the AAP government to set up more testing centres in view of the rise in COVID-19 cases in the national capital, which is recording over 24,000 fresh infections for the last few days. 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.

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The lawyers claimed that the number of daily tests have gone down to around 60,000 from the over 1 lakh tests that were being conducted earlier. Delhi recorded 350 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday and 22,933 cases with a positivity rate of 30.21 per cent.