Kejriwal directs officers to ensure strict compliance of guidelines on Covid-19 testing

New Delhi, July 29 (PTI): Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday directed officers to ensure strict compliance of existing guidelines on Covid-19 testing in the national capital.

The direction comes two days after the Delhi Hight Court asked the Aam Aadmi Party government why it was going with Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT), which has a high rate of false negative results, as the primary test for Covid-19 infection.

“Existing guidelines say that if any patient’s antigen test is negative but has symptoms, RT-PCR test must be done on him. I directed the officers today to ensure strict compliance of these guidelines,” Kejriwal tweeted.

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.

According to the Delhi health bulletin, 13,701 antigen tests were conducted on July 28 while 4,843 RT-PCR tests were done on that day.

During a hearing on July 27, the court had made it clear to the Delhi government to “strictly” follow the guidelines on Covid -19 testing as issued by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and not according to its own interpretation.

The court had also noted that the recent sero survey of the city indicated that more than 22.86 per cent of the population have gone through the Covid illness without even realising they were infected as they probably were asymptomatic.

The court had also said in such a scenario how can the Delhi government go with RAT as its front line test, when its rate of false negatives was very high, with RT/PCR being recommended for only those who were symptomatic.

It had said that the ICMR has not said that testing has to be done in this manner.

Delhi CM orders delinking of hotels as Covid facilities

The Delhi government has ordered the delinking of hotels which were earlier attached to different hospitals to combat the Covid -19 situation in the national capital.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday took the decision after reviewing the current situation. According to the government, the situation in Delhi is currently improving and all hotel beds are lying vacant so it has decided to release these hotels from Covid care.

In a tweet, Kejriwal said, “Some hotels were attached to the hospitals to increase the number of COVID beds. In view of the improving situation and all the hotel beds lying vacant for last many days, these hotels are now being released.”

More than 4,600 additional Covid -19 beds were created in Delhi by attaching around 40 hotels to various hospitals. But most of these beds were lying vacant due to improving Covid -19 situation in Delhi.

Delhi has reported 1.32 lakh cases so far, out of which 10,887 are currently active and 1.17 lakh recovered.