The Jharkhand High Court on Friday criticised the state government and Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for failure to procure and set up a genome sequencing machine even after two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic had ravaged the country.
Amid a rapid surge in Covid-19 cases, Jharkhand’s active caseload currently stands close to 15,000 as per last night’s bulletin. But the state health department is not aware to what extent the new fast-spreading Omicron variant was responsible for the spread, the court observed.
While hearing a PIL initiated suo motu by the court last year with regard to poor facilities at RIMS, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad wondered why the court had to prod the government to fulfil its responsibility towards the people. Taking a dig at the state government, the bench asked whether the authorities would wake up from their slumber after cremation grounds were full.
The court has ordered both the state government and RIMS to file separate affidavits on the status of acquiring a genome sequencing machine.
Health department sources said a genome sequencing machine had been ordered from the US company, Illumina, on January 1, 2022, and that it was expected to reach the state by mid-February.
Without such a facility, Jharkhand is currently dependant on a lab in Bhubneshwar for ascertaining the variant of Sars-Cov2 virus. Sources in the RIMS microbiology department said that in the third week of December 2021, they had sent 30 samples to the Bhubaneshwar lab. The delta variant showed up in three of these samples. But omicron wasnt detected in any of the samples. RIMS again sent 88 samples on January 1, 2022, reports of which are still to come.
Medical experts, however, are of the view that considering the rate of fresh infections in the state, omicron was the dominant variant at play. Since January 1, Jharkhand has been logging four-digit increases in Covid cases daily. On Thursday night, the state reported 3,704 cases in the last 24 hours.