NEW DELHI: The AAP government on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that prior COVID-19 test was not mandatory for admitting pregnant women in hospitals for in-patient interventions, including surgery and deliveries, and in emergent situations, treatment would not be denied for want of test results.
The test can be conducted simultaneously with the treatment and if the result come out to be positive, the pregnant woman would ideally be transferred to a dedicated COVID-19 hospital for further management, the government told the HC.
It also told a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan that it has “expanded” the use of Rapid Antigen Testing at hospitals to ensure availability of test results in quick time and this will further take care of difficulties being faced by people/patients, including pregnant women.
“As regard to admission in hospitals for in-patient interventions including surgery, delivery etc., prior Covidtest is not mandatory and in emergent situations the treatment must not be denied for want of COVID-19 test results. The test may be conducted simultaneously as per ICMR testing strategy.”
“However, the pregnant woman if found positive on testing is ideally to be transferred to dedicated COVID-19 hospitals for further management,” the government said. The HC on June 22 had remarked that 5-7 days cannot be taken for getting results for pregnant women prior to admitting them in hospitals for child-birth.