Hyderabad, June 9 : Officials of the Telangana government are of the opinion that it is difficult to implement the High Court order to conduct COVID-19 tests on the dead before releasing them from the hospitals in the state.
The officials’ response comes a fortnight after the high court ordered the state government to conduct coronavirus tests on all bodies before they were released from government hospitals.
According to a press release by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s office on Monday night, the officials opined that the state government should go for an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s order.
“It is difficult to implement the High Court order that Corona tests should be conducted on the dead for whatever reasons they have died.
In the state every day 900 to 1000 people die due to various reasons. Every day someone will die in some remote part of the state. It is not possible to conduct tests on them,” the officials informed Rao during a review meeting held on Monday.
Observing that the High Court directions in this connection were “impossible” to implement, the officials said the state government to go for an appeal in the Supreme Court in this regard.
If the medical staff in hospitals were deputed for conducting tests on bodies, they won’t find time to attend to the patients who come to hospitals for other ailments.
They also claimed that some were regularly filing Public Interest Litigations in the Court to keep the government machinery engaged all day making it difficult to monitor coronavirus related and other cases.
Alleging that the PILs were filed with vested interests, authorities said it would lead to “waste of valuable time” of senior medical officers.
On the alleged misinformation campaigns that no adequate arrangements were made to treat patients if their numbers rose, the CM said even if there was an increase in number of coronavirus cases, the government was ready to offer treatment.
According to ICMR guidelines, those patients who are in a serious condition were treated in the hospitals, those asymptomatic patients are treated at home, the release quoted the CM as saying.
The high-level review meeting on the spread of COVID-19, measures taken to contain it and other related issues was attended by Medical and Health Minister Etela Rajender, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Special Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) Shanti Kumari, Commissioner Yogita Rana, and others.
(PTI)
