Gujarat: ‘More testing will cause fear psychosis’

AHMEDABAD: The state government once again told the Gujarat high court that more testing, particularly of asymptomatic persons to find Covid-19 patients, is not advisable because it would reveal more cases and this may lead to a fear psychosis among the people.
On May 22, the Gujarat high court had questioned on reduced testing in its last order, “Is this an action to artificially control the data qua the number of cases in Gujarat?”
To this, the government said that it is working on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines and has no relevance or connection with the so-called artificial control of data qua the number of cases in the state.“However, the likelihood of fear psychosis being crept in, cannot be ruled out, if Covid-19 testing is allowed in all asymptomatic cases, just for acquiring a feeling of safety and security,”
The government said that it has formed a committee of Dr Pankaj Shah, Dr Tejas Patel and Dr Atul Patel to come up with findings on whether testing is advisable and should be permitted to asymptomatic persons merely to eliminate their doubts of being coronavirus carriers.
In response to the Gujarat high court’s directions to free Covid-19 testing and to procure maximum testing kits even for private labs, the state government on Thursday said that it is strictly following the ICMR policy for testing and does not intend to deviate from it.
On aid for private laboratories to test, the government said that 19 government laboratories are sufficient and good enough to conduct tests even though the number of cases may rise. “The 12 private laboratories are going to be utilized in case optimum capacity of government laboratories is likely to be exhausted,” the government reply said, adding that it is strictly following ICMR testing guidelines
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