New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday criticised the AAP government for "frittering away" a part of its RT-PCR testing capacity, saying its numbers were "abysmally low" when the number of coronavirus positive cases were averaging around 3,500-4,000 per day. The high court said that while the Delhi government had a testing capacity of 15,000 RT/PCR tests per day, around 4,000 of it was being unutilized. A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said that this indicated that despite the courts emphasis on ramping up RT/PCR tests in the national capital, "it has not activated the Delhi government adequately". The bench further said that while the number of tests by rapid antigen method (RAT), from September 14 to September 27, was 45,212, the tests by RT/PCR and other modes during the same period averaged around 10,280 which was "abysmally low" and "pathetic". "As against the testing capacity of 15,000 through RT/PCR and other similar tests (like CBNAAT and TrueNAT) per day available in Delhi, the actual number of testing being conducted through this mode is still floating around 11,000 tests per day on an average. "In other words, though Delhi has the capacity of conducting 15,000 tests per day through RT/PCR mode, 4,000 RT/PCR tests per day are being frittered away unutilized, which does not make any sense when cases of COVID-19 infection during the period between September 14 to 27, remain in the range of 3500-4000 cases per day.," the court said. RT/PCR, short for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, is a laboratory technique widely used in the diagnosis of genetic diseases and to measure gene expression in research. Cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) is a recently introduced polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based method for detection of TB. TrueNat is an indigenously developed portable version of CBNAAT and was also meant for detecting tuberculosis (TB). The Delhi government, represented by Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain and additional standing counsel Satyakam, said the expert committee, constituted by the Lt Governor, was actively involved in re-strategizing the testing capacity as also reviewing the overall strategy required to be followed and sought more time to await its recommendations. Taking note of the submission, the bench listed the matter for further hearing on October 7. The court also took note of the various steps taken by the Delhi government to streamline testing in the national Capital.

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