Speed up approval of functional RT-PCR machines: HC directs state, ICMR

The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the state government and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to ensure that Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the state government and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to ensure that Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machines are made available for Covid-19 tests at the earliest.

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Justice Manish Pitale, issued the direction after being informed that some RT-PCR machines in Vidarbha are not being used for Covid-19 tests as they are awaiting ICMR’s approval.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Nagpur resident CH Sharma in 2000, raising concerns about the healthcare quality at the four government medical colleges in Vidarbha region.

Sharma had complained that the colleges did not have enough medical seats for imparting education to students, lacked proper equipment for treatment and they lacked adequate staff, expert teachers and suffered from a paucity of funds.

This year on March 18, he moved the HC again pointing out that the medical colleges were ill-equipped to handle the Covid-19 patients and create isolation facilities.

During the course of hearing, the state’s counsel informed the court that at present RT-PCR test is only reliable in case of diagnosis of Covid-19 and rapid antibody test can at best be used for surveillance purposes. Assistant government pleader Dipak Thakare also said that the state has received 71,000 rapid antibody test kits for distribution in hot-spot areas, but the director of health services has issued instructions to all centres not to use the kits, as informed by ICMR. Distribution of the kits has been stopped from April 20.

Assistant solicitor general Ulhas Aurangabadkar, however, maintained that the ICMR has not taken any decision to do away with rapid antibody tests and has merely asked not to use kits purchased from two particular Chinese manufacturers. He said the tests could certainly be undertaken for surveillance, although the best test for diagnosis of Covid-19 continues to be the RT-PCR swab test.

Justice Pitale then directed the state authorities to make available RT-PCR tests for use and undertake rapid antibody tests for surveillance as suggested by ICMR. “This becomes all the more significant, considering that the results of the rapid antibody tests are said to be quick and hence of assistance to the state government in deciding its strategy to deal with areas where there is rapid spread of Covid-19,” he said.