Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the state government to strictly comply with the orders it had issued earlier to conduct one lakh RT-PCR and other tests per day to correctly assess the spread of Covid-19 and then to curb it by taking appropriate measures.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili also directed the government to ensure that strict policing to ensure social distancing was carried out. Justice Sharma asked the government to make sure that all guidelines issued by the Union Health Ministry viz., people should maintain social distancing, restrictions should be imposed on public gatherings, infrastructure in all hospitals across the state should be strengthened and sufficient supply of essential medicines to hospitals, should be ensured so that the Covid-19 patients were extended all medical aid on time.
Justice Shavili questioned the advocate general why the government did not ask the court to modify its orders in conducting RT-PCR tests. “You should have brought to the notice of the court that the tests would be conducted as per the guidelines of the ICMR and you must have asked the court to modify orders for conducting one lakh tests,” Justice Shavili observed .
The bench was dealing with the PILs and petitions related to the management of Covid-19.
L. Ravichander, senior counsel appearing in one of the PIL, informed the court that the state government had not complied with the orders of the High Court issued earlier, wherein the court had directed the government to conduct one lakh RT-PCR tests per day to curb further spread of covid-19 in the state, maintain micro-containment zones etc. He also submitted that the state had been doing a little bit of work and was informing the court that it was doing everything to tackle the pandemic.
“What it is doing is not enough to tackle the pandemic and moreover, there have been examples that the state government underreported Covid cases and mortalities,” Ravichander argued.
Chikkudu Prabhakar, counsel appearing for one of the petitioners, urged the court to issue directions to the state to issue orders directing all educational institutions to switch on to online classes in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases. But the court refused to give any directions regarding it.
However, the court directed the state government to submit a fresh status report by January 24, which should contain the details of the measurements taken to curb the pandemic and the tests conducted daily.
The case was adjourned to January 25.
