HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court, comprising Acting Chief Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice T Vinod Kumar, on Wednesday directed the State government to conduct more RT-PCR tests in Telangana. Observing a steep decline in the number of RT-PCR tests being conducted in comparison with the RAT tests, the bench directed the State to increase testing as RT-PCR tests were more accurate.
An affidavit filed by Dr Srinivas Rao, the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare highlighted that 50,45,609 RAT and 5,95,741 RT-PCR tests were carried out between a period of 16 July, 2021, to 19 September, 2021, thus indicating only 10 per cent of the total testing was being done by the RT-PCR method. With the festive season in mind, the court opined that the State needed to amp up Covid-19 testing while maintaining the current momentum with vaccinations.
With schools commencing physical classes from the beginning of this month, an urgent need to vaccinate the teaching and non-teaching staff was felt by the court. Of the total 4.93 lakh school staff, only 1,49,671 have been vaccinated. Hence, the court directed the government to complete administering vaccination to them as early as possible and also to complete the vaccination to the entire population within three months. It also warned of serious actions if the government failed to provide a colour graded action plan before September 30.
Expressing anguish over the Central government’s non-inclusion of life saving drugs meant to treat Covid-19 in the National List of Essential Medicines, the bench asked the Asst.Solicitor General N Rajeshwar Rao, “Two waves of Covid have hit us with huge fatalities and many more people will die... Will the Central govt include these life saving drugs in the list after the 3rd wave hits us.” Further, the bench directed the Union Health Ministry to include the life saving drugs in the list by October 30. The case was adjourned to October 29 for further hearing.
258 new cases, one death in State
Telangana recorded 258 cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday taking the toll of active cases in the State to 4,946. A total of 55,419 tests were conducted and 249 recoveries were recorded. The highest cases amongst 33 districts was reported in GHMC region with 69 cases, followed by 25 cases in Karimnagar. On the day, one individual died due to the virus, taking toll to 3,908