Delhi High Court has observed that the Delhi Government has not conducted more than 50% of the tests for COVID-19 and has failed to meet its own target and also directed the Delhi Government to submit an affidavit stating the minutes of the meeting of the Committee constituted by the Lieutenant Governor to look into the preparedness of Delhi to deal with COVID19.
The court had further directed the Delhi Government to ensure that its website is continually updated to regularly reflect the correct number of tests that are being conducted for COVID-19 in Delhi, mention the number of cases that are positive or negative and state the number of results that are pending after the tests are conducted.
The Division Bench of Justice HimaKohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad gave this order in a PIL seeking proper testing of COVID patients in both government and private hospitals and laboratories.
It was argued in the PIL that when the private hospitals have been declared as COVID-19 hospitals, they too should be permitted to conduct the said test on both, symptomatic and asymptomatic persons who seek admission for COVID-19 treatment or for scheduled/emergent surgeries/procedures, as already directed by this Court.
In a previous order in the same PIL, the Delhi High Court had directed the Delhi Government to ensure that the accredited labs in Delhi, which are testing samples for COVID19 infection, should be giving reports within a period of 24/48 hours.
The matter will be next heard on June 25.
Read the order here:
