The Ahmedabad Medical Association (AMA) has moved the Gujarat High court seeking its direction to permit ICMR-approved private laboratories and hospitals to conduct RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 “without any interference” from the government.

The High Court had, in it’s May 22 order, asked the Gujarat Government to make COVID-19 test mandatory for everybody.

“Since about last week or a little more, the respondents (state government) are not permitting private laboratories to conduct RT-PCR tests for Covid-19, without the approval of the respondents. The approvals, it is humbly submitted, are withheld for no justifiable reason. This has eventually resulted into a situation whereby doctors are unable to treat patients,” stated the application filed by the AMA on May 26.

The petition also states that family members of a lab-confirmed positive patient are not being allowed to be tested and are being made to wait for approvals up to several days, by when “ much damage is already done.”

The petition also cited the case of orthopaedic surgeon Dr Aditya Upadhyay who succumbed to Covid-19 on May 25 after contracting the infection from a positive patient he operated upon, whose tests could not be conducted owing to the new regulations.

The division bench of the Gujarat High Court had earlier this week heavily criticized the state government as the no. of COVID-19 deaths in Ahmedabad neared 1,000-mark. Pointing out the appalling condition of the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, the high court bench had called the condition ‘pathetic’ and ‘as good as a dungeon or maybe even worse.’ While 764 people have died in Ahmedabad alone due to the disease, around 400 of them have died at the city’s Civil Hospital alone.

The bench had said, “It is very distressing and painful to note that the condition prevailing, as on date, in the Civil Hospital, is pathetic… We are very sorry to state that the Civil Hospital Ahmedabad, as on date, appears to be in an extremely bad shape.”