Amid COVID-19 surge, Nainital HC directs Uttarakhand govt to increase testing

Amid the massive surge in COVID-19 cases, Nainital High Court on Thursday ordered the Uttarakhand government to conduct 30,000-50,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests in Dehradun, Haldwani, and Haridwar.

Amid the massive surge in COVID-19 cases, Nainital High Court on Thursday ordered the Uttarakhand government to conduct 30,000-50,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests in Dehradun, Haldw, and Haridwar.

The high court also directed the state government to increase home isolation tests.

Claiming that the state has a shortage of doctors, the court suggested seeking help from the 2,500 registered dentists.

A bench of senior judges R S Chauhan and Alok Kumar Verma took the aforementioned decision.

A press note stated that Health Secretary Amit Negi was asked to immediately provide all required facilities to COVID-19 patients in home isolation.

It also mentioned that as per the court's directive, under the National Disaster Management Act (NDMA), the government should ask private hospitals and labs to register COVID patients and conduct RT-PCR tests.

According to the union health ministry, Uttarakhand has 45,383 active COVID-19 cases. 2,417 COVID-19 infected patients have succumbed to the deadly virus till now.

( With inputs from ANI )