MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Tuesday directed BMC to file a detailed affidavit with facts and figures in reply to a PIL that raised serious concerns over “low rate of testing for Covid-19 and inaccessibility of economically weaker section to such tests”.
The PIL by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan also said there were inadequate healthcare professionals and other frontline workers in hospitals and inadequate facilities at quarantine centres. Its counsel, Mihir Desai, said there was a need to decentralize production of Covid-19 testing kits and sequester private health institutions into Covid-19 response, so that non-Covid health services at public health centres are not affected.
The PIL said testing in India, as on April 13, was “lowest in the world at 177 per million population” and “reports have emerged of hydroxychloroquine use on people as tests in some parts of Mumbai”.
The reply has to be filed before May 12, when the PIL will next be heard. Swati Deshpande
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/file-facts-on-covid-testing-before-tues-bombay-high-court-tells-bmc/articleshow/75566241.cms
