Conduct RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 frontline warriors: Bombay HC directs governments

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on Thursday said that the Centre and the state government should now seriously consider conducting Real-Time Polymerase

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on Thursday said that the Centre and the state government should now seriously consider conducting Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) rapid antibody tests on citizens, doctors, health workers and police personnel.

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Justice Manish Pitale said the governments should also consider undertaking rapid antibody tests as a matter of surveillance on citizens and residents of hotspot areas so that those infected by Sars-Cov-2 virus are identified and quarantined, thereby helping in the war against Covid-19 pandemic.

The judge said the nationwide lockdown was imposed so as to break the chain and spread of Covid-19 and to ensure that community spread does not take place. “It appears that such lockdown was part of the strategy to ensure that Covid-19 does not spread rapidly and exponentially as found in certain countries,” said the court.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO, Citizen Forum for Equality, seeking direction to the authorities to conduct RT-PCR tests on doctors and other health workers as well as police personnel attending Covid-19 treatment facilities, and a direction to the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to immediately frame appropriate guidelines for conducting such tests.

Advocate Tushar Mandlekar, who represented the NGO, also urged the court to direct the authorities to undertake rapid antibody tests on the residents of hot-spot areas so that persons infected with Covid-19 could be identified and quarantined at the earliest.