This story is from July 3, 2020

No mobile testing, RT-PCR gives better result: Govt to HC

No mobile testing, RT-PCR gives better result: Govt to HC
Hyderabad: A day after Telangana high court pulled up the state government for failing to control the spread of coronavirus and misleading the court on the number of tests done, the government on Thursday said it has no plans to introduce mobile testing labs in the state and added that it would continue to stick with RT-PCR tests which are more accurate.

Director of public health Dr G Srinivas Rao said it is difficult to carry out the RT-PCR tests in a mobile laboratory and termed the RT-PCR tests as a golden standard for Covid-19 testing. He also said that all the 13 government hospitals and 18 private labs that are empowered to conduct Covid-19 tests are doing only RT-PCR tests to ascertain the presence of the virus. He said this in a report furnished to a bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy. The court had sought a report, wondering as to why Telangana had not taken up mobile testing, when its neighbour AP had rolled out 1,000 ambulances to conduct door-to-door surveys and tests. It also questioned the low testing of Telangana at a time when AP had done 2.11 lakh tests in the last 10 days.
Dr Srinivas further said the entry of private labs in doing the tests was adding to the confusion. “Some of these labs are under scanner for their dubious methods and statistics,” he said in his report.
In the annexures attached to the report, the health director explained that the GHMC area comprising Hyderabad, Secunderabad, parts of Rangareddy and Medchal districts alone account for over 90% of Covid-19 cases in the state. He said there had been a surge in the cases ever since the lockdown norms were relaxed on May 16. As of now, there are 5,644 active Covid-19 cases spread over 150 wards in Greater Hyderabad. Of this, wards that witnessed more number of cases are Amberpet (268), Sitaphalmandi (151), Jiyaguda (125), Gunfoundry (104) and Begum Bazar and Old Malakpet (101 each), the report explained.
Dr Srinivas said nine state-run hospitals out of the 33 government hospitals treating Covid-19 cases are functioning in Hyderabad. Gandhi, TIMS, King Koti, Chest, Nature Cure, Fever, Government Nizamia, Government Homeo and Ayurveda hospitals are earmarked as Covid-19 hospitals with Gandhi serving as the nodal hospital, he added.
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