HC tells Delhi govt to ensure Covid-19 test reports don’t take more than 48 hours

The court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Rakesh Malhotra, who alleged the state government was not taking expeditious steps to furnish test reports within a reasonable time of 48 hours or even earlier.

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Delhi government to ensure that reports of test samples should be furnished within 24 to 48 hours and ordered it to regularly update its website to reflect the correct number of tests that are being conducted to detect Covid-19 cases in the city.

A hospital staff preparing for coronavirus testing in a hosptial in Pune. (Pratham Gokhale/HT File Photo)

A bench of justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad asked the Delhi government to mention the number of cases that are positive or negative, along with the number of pending test results.

The court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Rakesh Malhotra, who alleged the state government was not taking expeditious steps to furnish test reports within a reasonable time of 48 hours or even earlier. As a result of the alleged delay, he said contact tracing was getting delayed and the infection was multiplying rapidly.

The Delhi government’s additional standing counsel Satyakam informed the court that the state government had passed an order on April 29, stopping sending samples to NIB, Noida, due to the delay of over 15 days forwarding test reports. He said the lab has samples coming in from across the country.

He said samples were now being distributed among other government and private labs to ensure reports were received within 24-48 hours from the date of submission.

He told the court that as of date, there are 23 accredited labs for Covid-19 testing in Delhi. Of these, 10 are under the public sector and 13 are private. The collective capacity of these labs is 3,000-3,500 tests per day, he said.

Satyakam said that as on April 29, as many as 7,794 reports were pending, out of which 5,944 reports were with NIB, Noida.

“Till the night of May 3, 3,790 reports are stated to be pending with accredited labs and the reports shall be received by today or maximum, by tomorrow. As on May 2, 9,226 reports were pending, but said figure has considerably reduced to 3,790 as on May 3, which itself reflects the government is cognisant of the delay in receiving reports and has dealt with the said situation without losing time,” he said on Monday.

Following this, the court said it was satisfied with the remedial measures undertaken by the Delhi government to expedite receipt of reports and directed it to continue uploading the information.