No prescription needed for RT-PCR test in Gujarat

The State govt. had earlier slashed the price of the test by ₹700

December 05, 2020 04:00 am | Updated 04:00 am IST - AHMEDABAD

In the wake of rising cases, the Gujarat government modified its policy on Friday to freely allow anyone to go for COVID-19 testing without a prescription from a doctor.

Earlier this week, the State government had reduced the rate for RT-PCR test for the virus at private laboratories from ₹1500 to ₹800.

Under the new guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), people can get themselves tested at designated laboratories without any prescription or recommendation from a doctor, which was compulsory earlier for RT-PCR tests.

In fact, private doctors and hospitals in Gujarat were required to get approval from government authorities even for prescribing a coronavirus test, which was subsequently scrapped following intervention by the High Court.

Meanwhile, Gujarat’s COVID-19 numbers jumped to 2,15,819 on Friday with 1510 new infections, and 18 new deaths have taken the fatality count to 4049. So far, 1,96,992 patients have been discharged. There are now 14778 active cases across the State.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.