The State government has assured to address the inconvenience that is being caused to entrants at the checkpoints who have to wait many hours before they are given their Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) report for Covid-19.
This was stated by Advocate General Amit Kumar during hearing of a public interest litigation on the matter at the Meghalaya High Court today. The hearing was taken up via video conferencing by the division bench of Justice Hamarsan S. Thangkhiew and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh.
During the hearing, senior lawyer S P Mahanta and another lawyer Kaastav Paul raised the issue of inconvenience that is being caused to entrants at the checkpoints who have to wait many hours before they are given their RAT report.
The two lawyers urged the court to direct the State government to put measures in place that will ease this problem for the travellers or entrants.
They also told the High Court that the fact that entrants who produce a Covid negative report at the entry point are exempted from testing irrespective of their State of origin, should be highlighted and widely publicised by the government so as to reduce the number of persons taking the test at the entry points.
The Advocate General referred to the latest revised protocol issued on October 27 wherein the norms have been relaxed to a certain extent.
He also said that entrants with a negative RT-PCR/TruNat/CBNAAT report not having any Covid-19 symptoms are exempted from quarantine and that entrants with a RAT negative report would however have to undergo a mandatory quarantine period of seven days.
Kumar submitted that checking facilities are in place at all entry points and the protocol as laid down and in force is being followed.
Meanwhile, during the hearing the High Court expressed satisfaction with the decision of the State government to bring down the rates for Covid test in the State.
Kumar informed the court that the State government in its latest order issued on October 28 had fixed the new rates for Covid test. According to him, the rate for Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) has been reduced to Rs 500 while that of RT-PCR Test is Rs 1000, TruNaat Test Rs 1500 and CBNAAT Test Rs 3000.
On this, the High Court observed that the re-fixation of rates “appears to be reasonable”.
