Mumbai: The unavailability of COVID-19 testing centers in each district does not impact the quality of tests and the interest of citizens, the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday. The government while further over its refusal to set up such centers in all districts, has cited the financial constraints.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Amjad Sayed was further informed that there is no need to have a separate testing center in each district as the coronavirus outbreak is presently limited only till urban and semi-urban areas.
This comes in response to an affidavit filed by Dr Sadhana Tayade, Director, Health Services, Mumbai, through additional government pleader Manish Pabale.
According to the government, setting up a laboratory for testing COVID-19 samples is a "highly specialized exercise" which needs to be carried out very carefully and cautiously.
"Such a laboratory is materially different than setting up of a normal pathological laboratory. This is principally because the COVID-19 virus is highly contagious and infectious. The place where the suspected samples are to be tested, has to be a very safe and tightly closed and secured place so that no possibility is left for the virus to escape," the affidavit reads.
The affidavit further states that setting up such an establishment requires not only sophisticated machinery but also a highly trained manpower to operate or even handle the same. It further goes on to highlight that the government has increased the number of testing centers at a breakneck speed from 3 in March to 79 (44 government and 35 private) till May 29.
"The testing capacity of all these laboratories sums up to testing of about 35,000 (15,000 in Govt Labs + 20,000 in Private Labs) samples per day. Thus, it is always advisable as also desirable to increase the testing capacity of a established laboratory instead of setting up completely new laboratories at new places," the affidavit reads.
Dr Tayade, in her affidavit has further set out reasons for not starting up new centers in each district, saying, "The COVID-19 outbreak is largely concentrated in urban and semi-urban areas where testing facilities are scaled up as per the requirements and availability of resources. There are serious constraints on the availability of skilled technicians and sophisticated equipment."
"The non-availability of testing facilities in each district is not affecting the quality of the tests and also does not affect the interest of citizens as long as adequate number of sample collection centers are set up at reasonable distance in every locality," the affidavit reads further.
The affidavit further sums up that many hospitals in the state do not have the requisite infrastructure to upgrade it to COVID-19 facility.
"Hence, it is not possible to start such facilities in each and every district. In any case it is required to mobilize the available resources to the areas having large number of cases," Tayade has said.
The bench was dealing with a plea seeking setting up of COVID-19 facilities in each district across Maharashtra.
