Delhi govt is expected to follow L-G order on testing: High Court

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Monday said it expected the Delhi government to "scrupulously" follow the directions issued by the Lieutenant Governor on June 8 in connection with testing of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued the direction while disposing of two pleas challenging the Delhi government health department's June 2 decision to exclude asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic patients from COVID 19 testing.

The court said it was not going to further monitor the matter in view of the Delhi government status report which said that L-G Anil Baijal on June 8 set aside the June 2 order. The LG by his June 8 order had directed that testing strategy recommended by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) be followed, said the report, filed through Delhi government additional standing counsel Satyakam. The report also stated that testing in Delhi has been ramped up and another testing methodology in the form of ''Rapid Antigen Testing'' has been adopted in Delhi as per the recommendation of ICMR. The two separate but similar petitions were filed by doctor K K Aggarwal, Padma Shri Awardee and former President of Indian Medical Association (IMA), and Renu Goswami.

In the second petition, Goswami said the Delhi government excluded asymptomatic direct contacts of confirmed cases from COVID-19 testing (except high-risk cases), which is in contravention of ICMR testing guidelines issued on May 18 mandating testing of asymptomatic direct and highrisk contacts of a confirmed case.