JOIN USTelangana allows COVID-19 testing in private hospitals; caps test price at Rs 2,200
The Telangana government has allowed COVID-19 tests in private hospitals and labs, capping the pricing at Rs 2,200 per test.
The rate for treatment in a private hospital ICU has been fixed at Rs 7,500 per day without ventilator support and Rs 9,000 with ventilator. For isolation in a private hospital, one has to pay only Rs 4,000 per day, announced health minister Etela Rajender on Monday.
The state is accused of not conducting enough tests and by disallowing tests in the private sector, the Chandrasekhar Rao government faced allegations of concealing the real extent of the virus spread.
As per Sunday’s COVID-19 bulletin, total people infected in Telangana is 4,974, and among them, active cases are 2412. Telangana has not been revealing the number of tests done.
About three-fourth of the total COVID-19 cases are reportedly from Hyderabad. Out of 237 new cases on Sunday, 195 are from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation jurisdiction.
With COVID-19 cases being highly concentrated in Hyderabad and surrounding areas, Chief Minister Rao has announced a plan to conduct 50,000 coronavirus tests in the 30 assembly segments falling in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Vikarabad, Medchal, and Sangareddy districts in next ten days as “a precautionary measure” to identify the infected early.
Officially unconfirmed reports say that only a little over 40,000 tests are done till now, placing Telangana among the least testing states. For comparison, in neighboring Andhra Pradesh 5,67,375 tests were conducted till Monday and a total 6,456 cases were reported.
However, the Rao government has been defending its strategy as “scientifically and on-ground experience driven.”
“Because we have implemented the lockdown strictly, there is no community spread in Telangana as stated by the ICMR too,” Etela said, however adding that every household in Hyderabad would be surveyed for COVID-19 purpose.
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar stated the additional testing “is to instill public confidence.”
“The government is equipped to treat any number of patients. But if someone wants private treatment they can avail so,” the state’s top bureaucrat said. “But private hospitals should not take this as an opportunity to market tests. We would take strict action against those private medical facilities taking in patients or doing tests unnecessarily.”
The announcement allowing private testing and treatment came after CM Rao’s review meeting with health officials on Sunday, where he instructed them to prepare guidelines for private labs and hospitals on conducting COVID-19 tests and treatment, and the fees that can be charged.