Delhi High Court Suggests Changes In Required Document Criteria For Remdesivir

The Delhi High Court, on Wednesday, questioned the government and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) regarding the necessity of RT-PCR reports for approving requisitions of Remdesivir drug by the hospitals or individual patients when a doctor has prescribed the same.

Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said that there had been instances where the RT-PCR tests have given false reports, claiming negative for COVID-19, whereas CT Scans, X-rays and blood tests clearly indicated traces of the contagion. The bench said that producing RT-PCR positive reports for availing Remdesivir should in no way be made compulsory. Required treatment should be provided to patients who display symptoms of COVID-19, irrespective of RT-PCR test reports.

This issue which was raised by amicus curiae and senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao gained further momentum when endorsed by the court as they asked ICMR and Delhi Government to look into the matter. The matter came to the surface when Rao said that he had noticed some cases in the drug controller's portal which had not been acted upon due to the inability of producing RT-PCR positive test reports.

Considering the potential issues that this matter could lead to, Rao suggested slight changes in the requirement criteria of the document for availing required drugs. He suggested an amendment for accepting Rapid Antigen Test results as well as prescriptions by any registered medical practitioner, reported NDTV.

Recent studies have found that particular variants of the virus can escape the RT-PCR tests but can show traces in chest X-rays, blood tests and even CT scans. There have been several instances where patients were not even allowed entry into COVID facility hospitals due to the absence of RT-PCR positive test reports, even though the patients clearly displaced severe symptoms of COVID-19.