The Supreme Court has posed a sharp query to the stakeholders, such as they operate in India. Why are tests so few in Delhi? The query runs in parallel to the reduction in the number of tests for coronavirus, and the curtailment of the quarantine period in several states.
The reason for the reduction can only be speculated upon ~ the ballooning costs of such tests arguably being one major deterrent. Equally, how does care and cure proceed in the absence of test reports ~ isn’t it a primary prerequite in this day and age?
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Small wonder that at least a section of medical professionals is astonished with the decision to test only those presenting with symptoms. These professionals insist that one is still learning, that it is a dynamic situation, and that because most of the world appears to have bought into the World Health Organisation’s prescription for “aggressive testing”, screening and isolation, India must do so too.
The Indian Council of Medical Research had initially suggested that tests be confined to those with symptoms; it too was swept away by the storm of WHO’s opinion but has now returned to its original thinking. Is the ICMR wrong? Who is to say? But are their Lordships, armed with degrees in law and not epidemiology, better placed to take a call? Similarly, is the quarantine protocol flawed?
Is two weeks of institutional quarantine better for curbing the spread of the disease than a week’s stay in an institution followed by another week at home? Is Karnataka right to allow business visitors to the state to skip quarantine if they leave within a week? Or is West Bengal right to push all those returning from “badly” afflicted states into compulsory quarantine?
Was Delhi right earlier when it allowed asymptomatic visitors the run of the city with a request to self-monitor or is it right now when it asks they remain in home quarantine for 7 days? There are no easy answers to these questions, not for experts and certainly not for laypersons, and the numbers of the latter must include those who adorn the benches of our venerable courts and indeed those who pen comments such as this one.
But there is one conclusion that all of us can reach while analysing the response of the State to Covid- 19. In terms of treatment, testing, lockdown and quarantine protocols, India appears to have become more federal than even the United States of America. And that certainly was not how the Constitution wanted us to be.
It is important for one authority to lay down a common set of protocols for India to follow and for everyone, be they states ruled by the BJP, the Congress or the AIADMK, to accept these.
There must be a thread of uniformity that ties together the way life goes on in India, and that must extend to medical protocols. If the Supreme Court believes it can bring all governments in the country together and knock some common sense into leaders, more power to its elbow.
