india

Updated: Apr 24, 2020 15:33 IST

Rapid antibody test kits for Covid-19 are purchased but their use is put on hold in view of divergent outcome of some sample tests, the central government informed Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday.

Assistant Solicitor General UM Aurangabadkar informed the bench of justice Nitin Sambre that procurement of rapid antibody test kits has been completed in part at the central government level, however, its use is put on hold in view of the divergent results of sample tests.

“These kits are used only for surveillance and the same cannot be used for VRDL centers,” said Aurangabadkar. He also clarified that the kits at the disposal of Indian Council for Medical Research and will be distributed to States, if demanded by them.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Nagpur resident CH Sharma over raising concerns about the quality of healthcare provided at four government medical colleges in Vidarbha region.

Sharma complained that the four colleges did not have enough medical seats for imparting medical education to students, lacked proper equipment required for taking care of the patients and also for imparting education, the colleges lacked adequate staff, expert teachers and they also suffered from paucity of funds.

On March 18, 2020, he moved high court again pointing out that the government medical colleges in Vidarbha were completely ill-equipped to handle Covid-19 patients and create isolation facilities.

During the course of hearing on the petition on Thursday, the court was also informed that VRDL laboratories cannot be made operational at Yavatmal and Chandrapur before May 20, for want of infrastructure.

Dr. Ajay Kewaliya, Dean of Indira Gandhi Medical College at Nagpur also informed the court that the Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Machines (RT-PCR) required for the laboratories are procured through Haffkine Institute, which in turn imports the machines from Singapore and shipment of the machines is a time consuming process.

In this backdrop, justice Sambre directed the authorities concerned that “once the equipment is received and the labs are installed, the operation of the same shall not be withhold for want of testing kits and it shall be the duty of the Competent Authority,o including the State Government,o to make available sufficient number of testing kits for making such labs operational.”