Laboratories holding RT-PCR test results unless uploaded on the ICMR portal shall be punished.

It was brought to the attention of the High court of Bombay that several laboratories are not giving the reports unless the reports are uploaded on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal and sometimes the server is slow, which results in delay. To address this, the High Court directed that test results must be immediately sent to patients on Whatsapp and then upload the same on the ICMR portal.

Relevant extracts of the said order have been reproduced below-

“The reports of the patients, whether positive or negative, shall be immediately sent to the patients on Whatsapp and hard copies of the reports shall also be made available to the patients immediately without holding delivery of all such reports on the ground that the reports have not been uploaded on the ICMR portal.

We direct that after making the reports available to the patients on Whatsapp as also hard copy of it, the reports of the patients, who test positive shall be uploaded on the ICMR portal within 24 hours and the reports of the patients who test negative should be uploaded on the ICMR portal within 7 days and if these directions are not complied with by the laboratories, the authorities will be free to take appropriate action against the concerned laboratories, as deemed fit by the concerned authority. This arrangement shall continue until further orders.”