Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday said the city government cannot violate the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines “that state certain conditions” prerequisite for conducting Coronavirus tests.
He added that if the number of tests has to be increased in the national capital, then the ICMR should change its guidelines.
“If you want the number of tests conducted for COVID-19 to increase, then ask ICMR to change its guidelines. We cannot flout ICMR guidelines that state certain conditions which are prerequisite for tests,” Satyendar Jain was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Jain’s comments come a day after the Supreme Court slammed the Delhi government for drop in COVID-19 testing from 7,000 to 5,000 amid rising coronavirus cases in the national capital.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah had on Thursday taken suo motu cognizance of reports of improper handling of COVID-19 patients and undignified disposal of victims’ bodies in Delhi hospitals.
The bench termed the situation in Delhi as “horrendous, horrific and pathetic” and reproached the Arvind Kejriwal led-government for patients being placed alongside stacks of dead bodies in the hospitals.
The top court also observed that it is the duty of every state government to increase COVID-19 testing and not keep people waiting for long to get tested. Ordering the Delhi government to increase testing capacity in NCR, the Supreme Court made it clear that no one should be denied tests.
“Nobody should be denied testing on technical reasons… simplify procedure so more and more can test for COVID,” the bench ordered.
Delhi has seen a spurt in Coronavirus cases and over 1,000 new cases daily for the past few days. It is the third worst-hit state with 36,824 infections and 1,214 deaths.
Delhi recorded 2,137 fresh coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest single-day spike. As many as 71 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours, according to the latest Delhi health department bulletin. This is the first time when over 2,000 cases have been reported in a day in Delhi. The previous highest spike in fresh cases — 1,877– was recorded on June 11.
Meanwhile, the AAP government has said that it expects around 5.5 lakh cases in the city by July 31.