Negative RTPCR report not enough to reject COVID-19 compensation: HC

Mumbai, Jan 14 (PTI) An RTPCR report showing a person as COVID-19 negative cannot be the sole criterion to reject compensation when all other medical reports clearly indicate the infection, the Bombay High Court has said.

The HC's Aurangabad bench directed the Ahilyanagar district collector to process the claim of a man, who lost his health worker wife during the pandemic, to receive the insurance amount of Rs 50 lakh under the Prime Minister's Garib Kalyan Yojna.

The bench of Justices Arun Pednekar and Vaishali Jadhav, in the order passed on January 9, said the collector's previous decision rejecting the man's claim for compensation, on the ground that he had not submitted an RTPCR report showing the victim was COVID-19 positive, cannot be accepted.

It directed the Ahilyanagar collector to process the claim raised by Machindra Gaikwad under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojna, a scheme declared for the family members of COVID-19 warriors, doctors and health workers who died during the pandemic.

The collector is directed to forward the claim of the man to the authority concerned by holding that his wife was COVID-19 positive at the time of death in view of the overwhelming medical evidence that indicates she succumbed to the coronavirus infection, the HC said.

The bench in its order noted that while the RTPCR report says the deceased was COVID-19 negative, the medical reports submitted clearly indicate otherwise.

The medical reports, including the CT scan and oxygen level and certificate of cause of death, clearly indicate COVID-19 infection and show that the cause of death was a consequence of the same, the court said.

Merely because the petitioner could not submit a report certifying that the deceased tested positive for COVID-19, his compensation claim cannot be rejected, the HC said.

"Therefore, the RTPCR report indicating that the deceased tested negative for COVID-19 is not the sole criteria to rely upon to decide whether the person was COVID-19 positive or that the death is caused due to COVID-19 infection," it said.

As per the plea, the petitioner's wife was working as a nurse since 1993 in the Ahilyanagar civil hospital and died in May 2021 while performing her duty at the medical facility during the pandemic.

He relied on his wife's medical papers, as per which she died due to cardio-respiratory failure as a consequence of pneumonitis and coronavirus infection.

He said his wife was working at a quarantine centre during the pandemic and was in direct contact with COVID-19 patients. PTI SP GK