To speed up testing, Delhi govt says no to Noida lab

The Delhi government had on Tuesday raised the issue of delay in test results in a meeting with union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. A day later, the Delhi government order clarified that NIB was the culprit.

To speed up testing in Delhi, the government on Wednesday ordered that no sample must be sent to central-government-run National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) in Noida till the end of the week. The samples that were being sent to the Noida-lab will be redistributed among the other government laboratories in the city.

In most Covid-19 designated hospitals, microbiology laboratories are equipped to do the Covid-19 tests, meaning there are no delays. (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

The Delhi government had on Tuesday raised the issue of delay in test results in a meeting with union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. A day later, the Delhi government order clarified that NIB was the culprit.

“The RT-PCR tests have to be performed expeditiously in Delhi for the containment zones and the patients admitted. The samples collected from different districts are being sent to various government and private labs, majorly to NIB, Noida in the last 15 days. It has been observed that there is considerable pendency for testing reports in NIB which is hindering the effective containment of the disease [sic],” the Delhi government order said.

Similar orders have been issued in previous weeks.

“We have not been sending our samples to the NIB for at least a week now. The reports were taking about a week. The problem is without the positive results, even though we tell people to remain in quarantine, they end up going to local shops, etc. If this happens for a week, imagine the number of people that could be infected. We need the reports as soon as possible so we can admit them to Covid centres,” a district health official said.

There has been a tussle between the Delhi and UP governments for the use of the laboratory’s resources, sources who know of the matter said. “The laboratory has been chosen for district sampling because of its huge capacity, but the pendency is high and there has been a tussle between who should use its resources as the UP government has also been sending several samples to the facility, leading to a long waiting time,” the person said.

In most Covid-19 designated hospitals, microbiology laboratories are equipped to do the Covid-19 tests, meaning there are no delays.

“Usually it takes two days at the latest to get the reports in the hospital. However, the wait time has gone up by around a day since other samples have started coming in. Our laboratory is equipped to manage our cases,” a doctor from Lok Nayak Hospital said.

The government has also come up with a coding mechanism for the samples being sent to the lab—CCC for Covid Care Centres, CTC for Covid Test Centres, CHC for Covid Health Centres, and CZ for containment zone. This is to be followed by the numerical district code 01 – 11, followed by a three-digit code for the facility. Samples coming from hospitals will be marked with their initials such as LNJP, RGSSH, LHMC, RML etc.