HC asks Centre, Telangana to respond to plea seeking Ct value in COVID-19 test results

HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Telangana High Court, on Thursday, issued notices to the State and Central governments to respond to a PIL filed seeking direction to government authorities and clinical establishments to add the Cycle Threshold (Ct) value to the RT-PCR test results of Covid-19 patients. This is done so the virus spread is contained, and the triaging of patients is improved with the help of information on viral load, the PIL said.

Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy are dealing with the PIL filed by advocate T Ram Prasad. Petitioner’s counsel Swaroop Oorilla brought to the notice of the court an article published by the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine, Oxford University, which had conducted a detailed study on clinical utility of Ct values. It had concluded that the Ct value may be useful in predicting the clinical course and prognosis of patients. At present, all Covid-19 detection centres make use of the RT-PCR test, and its results are generally reported as either positive or negative.

However, to contain the spread of the virus, the RT-PCR test should provide an additional measure of the viral load in the sample — the Ct value. The object of preventing Covid spread would be served if people with high viral load are identified and isolated, he added.