Coronavirus in Delhi: Several govt hospitals make Covid test compulsory for all patients as cases surge

After a significant surge in Coronavirus cases and sero-surveys done, it was noted that one-fourth of the National Capital’s population has been exposed to the deadly infection. Keeping this in mind, the Delhi High Court asked the state government to come up with measures to test asymptomatic patients and other new cases. In view of this, several government hospitals in Delhi will now be making rapid antigen testing compulsory for all patients, The Indian Express reported. In Delhi, an aggressive testing approach is the need of the hour and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told district officials to ramp up Covid-19 testing by twofold and conduct up to 40,000 tests. According to the report, 36,046 tests were carried out on Sunday.

Delhi, in the last 24 hours, has reported 3,256 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 29 fatalities linked to coronavirus related complications. This, as per the data provided by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has taken the overall confirmed cases in the city to 1,91,449. This can be noted as the highest single-day increase in the last two months. This has led to the government decided to test all patients coming to hospitals. Citing Dr. BL Sherwal, medical director of Delhi State Cancer Institute, the report said that testing was not necessary for all. However, in the past few days, the hospitals have started testing all patients visiting the hospital via rapid antigen tests. If need be, the government hospitals will also perform re-tests including RT-PCR. Prior to this, hospitals only tested those for antibodies who were getting admitted or needed surgery.

In hospitals like GB Pant, a separate area has been allotted near the registration counter where patients can get tested for Coronavirus, adhering to the guidelines set by the government.

Notably, in a report submitted to the Delhi High Court by the National Centre for Disease Control, asymptomatic cases pose a huge challenge at a time when effective containment of the disease is imperative. Meanwhile, private testing labs have still not received any official communication to conduct tests in the city for asymptomatic patients or tests without prescriptions. States like Maharashtra and Punjab, on the other hand, have already rolled out updated testing guidelines for Covid patients.