BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Friday sought a response from the state government and Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on measures required to reduce the delay between getting a Covid test result and shifting a positive patient to a hospital.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar, hearing a batch of public interest litigations on Covid-19, including one registered suo motu, observed that delays in receiving reports from labs and then admitting positive patients to hospitals are posing a major problem.
If a family member is infected and if there is a delay in getting the Covid test result, there is a possibility of that person spreading the virus to other members of the family, the bench said.The BBMP counsel submitted that it requires 12-14 hours to take a person to hospital after receiving information about a positive test result.
The bench sought a response from the state government and the BBMP on measures required to reduce the delay in moving patients to hospitals and asked whether the BBMP or the District Health Officer was required to inform private hospitals on admitting Covid patients. The bench asked for information on hospitals that denied admission to people with Covid infections, and added that an inquiry conducted against such hospitals would send out a strong message.