The health department on Saturday directed the officials of RIMS in Ranchi, and MGM Medical College and Hospital, Jamshedpur, which have Covid-19 testing facilities in Jharkhand, to not share information regarding sample testing status and results with the media or on WhatsApp groups.

The department also put in place guidelines on sharing information.

From now, the two testing facilities must directly send information to the health department via email to idspjharkhand2@gmail.com by 4pm every day and upload sample test reports to the website of the department of health research in accordance with the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research. A report must also be emailed to civil surgeon of the district from where the sample has come.

A copy of the directive signed by principal secretary of the health department Nitin Kulkarni, shared by the superintendent of RIMS, Dr Vivek Kashyap, is available with The Telegraph.

The development took place a day after Jharkhand High Court asked the state chief secretary on preparations in place to fight Covid-19.

The high court on Friday asked the government on the availability of personal protective kits for doctors, testing kits and other details including the status of quarantine centres.

The court will again take up the matter on April 7.

On Friday itself, a memo was issued by RIMS director Dr D.K. Singh and superintendent Dr Vivek Kashyap, saying that it was being observed that sensitive information related to Covid-19 issues at RIMS were being shared with the media in an unauthorised manner on social media.