National Centre for Disease Control Director has been asked to be present on the next date of hearing
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to file its report on the results and analysis of the antibody testing, also called sero surveillance, carried out in the national capital.
The Delhi government had between June 27 to July 5 collected a total of 21,793 antibody samples from across the city and had sent it to NCDC which had not till date given the results.
A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad directed the NCDC to place the test results before it by July 16 and added that the report shall also include analysis of the results.
It also asked the Director of NCDC to be present on the next date of hearing to assist the court.
The direction came after Delhi government additional standing counsel Satyakam told the court that when he called up the NCDC Director on July 12 for the test results, he was asked not to call the official and told that the concerned department should write to NCDC.
On this, the bench told Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma and central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, representing the Ministry of Health, that the court would not take such kind of "red-tapeism" and asked them to ensure that the NCDC Director be also present on the next date, July 16.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was also asked to file an updated affidavit indicating the applications it has received from private hospitals and labs in Delhi seeking authorisation for carrying out the Rapid Antigen Detection Test.
The Delhi government was directed to file an affidavit indicating the number of persons who tested negative after undergoing the antigen test and then were made to take the RT/PCR test.
This would reflect the extent of ramping up of tests that the Delhi government has claimed to have done, the bench said.
The direction came on the suggestion of petitioner-lawyer Rakesh Malhotra who said the latest status report of Delhi government did not state how many tested negative in the antigen test and then underwent the RT/PCR test.
RT/PCR, short for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, is a laboratory technique widely used in the diagnosis of genetic diseases and to measure gene expression in research.
The court was hearing Malhotra's plea seeking increasing of the testing numbers in the national capital and getting speedy results.
The Delhi government in its latest status report has stated that to augment testing for detecting COVID-19 infection, and to make it more accessible to the general public, all the Delhi government and private hospitals have been asked to undertake Point of Care testing in the form of Rapid Antigen Detection Test (RADT) of eligible individuals.
The report also stated that it has been decided that the antigen test would be offered in all the Delhi government run dispensaries and poly clinics on all working days, from 9 AM to 12 noon.
The high court on June 25 had called for an action plan on ramping up tests in the national capital and had directed the Delhi government to endorse the advisory of ICMR for increasing tests through both private and public sector labs.
Subsequently, a direction was also issued to ICMR to file an affidavit indicating how many private hospitals and labs have approached it for authorization to undertake RADT and to clarify the actual number of tests undertaken for residents of Delhi on a daily basis.