Orissa High Court unhappy with coronavirus testing 

The Additional Chief Secretary, Health department, Pradipta Kumar  Mohapatra had filed two affidavits - one on July 19 and another on July 27.
A healthcare worker collects swab sample from a woman for Covid testing. (File Photo | EPS/Parveen Negi)
A healthcare worker collects swab sample from a woman for Covid testing. (File Photo | EPS/Parveen Negi)

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday also expressed disappointment over the State government’s failure to present a clear picture on availability of Covid-19 testing facilities throughout the State, especially in the rural areas. One Sanjiv Joshi had filed a PIL seeking the Court’s intervention in availability of RT-PCR testing facilities at the rural and block levels. The Additional Chief Secretary, Health department, Pradipta Kumar  Mohapatra had filed two affidavits - one on July 19 and another on July 27.

However, the Court expressed dissatisfaction as the affidavits did not answer several questions including availability of health facilities in all districts, RTPCR and rapid antigen test kits availability, number of ASHAs and paramedical staff trained in using the test kits, time lag between taking the Covid test and availability of the result.

The division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice B P Routray said the Court would like to understand the ground situation district-wise, starting with Kalahandi and Nabarangpur districts. Accordingly, the bench directed Mohapatra to file an affidavit on statistics relating to both the districts on the issues highlighted by September 14.

The bench said that the affidavit shall also present a ‘health map’ of each of the two districts, marking the locations where both public and private health facilities are available and where the RTPCR and rapid antigen tests can be undertaken. “After the affidavit is filed by the State, the Court proposes to request the respective District Legal Services Authorities to utilise the services of para-legal workers to report on the ground situation”, the bench further said in its order, while posting the matter to September 15 for hearing. 

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