Supreme court directs govt to make Coronavirus testing free!

The Supreme Court has directed the central government to make the Coronavirus tests free of cost to all Indians. In an interim order, the court directed the Centre to immediately instruct approved laboratories – both government and private facilities, to conduct free testing.

The vtwo-judge bench, comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and S. Ravindra Bhat accepted the appeal made by the petitioner claiming that it is difficult for a majority of Indian population to pay the private labs fee of ₹4,500 for screening and confirmation of Coronavirus, and that they cannot be denied their right to test for covid-19 due to lack of money.

Supreme court said that covid-19 tests must be carried out only in National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories accredited Labs, or agencies approved by WHO or ICMR, and gave two weeks for the government to file a response. The case was filed by advocate Shashan Deo Sudhi against the advisory issued by lCMR setting a price of ₹4,500 for screening and confirmation of Coronavirus for private labs.