Taking note of the
growing number of Covid-19 cases in the state, the Telangana High Court today asked the state government to strictly implement the ICMR prevention guidelines, including restricting all gatherings to no more than 100 persons, to prevent the spread of the virus.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, asked the government to categorise the areas with the highest number of cases as containment zones, and to take steps for the prevention of the further spread of the virus in those areas accordingly.
The government was also asked to perform 50,000 RTPCR tests every day.
The bench issued these orders while dealing with a batch of PILs concerning the worrying case spike in Telangana.
Arguing the case on behalf of one of the petitioners, senior advocate C Prabhakar told the court that the medical bulletin released on March 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13 clearly showed that the state government had failed to perform the stipulated 50,000 tests per day despite orders to do so, and had only tested 20,000 persons a day.
He urged the bench to consider the non-compliance with the orders as contempt of court, and appealed to it to initiate action against the officials concerned.
However the state's Advocate General responded by saying that the government was following the orders of the court and conducting the requisite number of tests.
After the presentation of facts from both sides, the court asked the government to file a comprehensive status report on the measures it had taken to prevent the spread of the communicable virus by April 6. The case was then adjourned till April 7.