Haryana struggles to increase Covid testing as it fails to find partner labs

The six private laboratories authorised to do Covid-19 tests in the city have conducted more than 800 tests in the last 15 days, an average of about 53 tests per

The six private laboratories authorised to do Covid-19 tests in the city have conducted more than 800 tests in the last 15 days, an average of about 53 tests per day. While the private labs said they were working 24X7 to test as many samples as possible, the collective clearing capacity of these labs is far below the number of samples the district is required to test every day given that Gurugram is Haryana’s largest Covid-19 hot spot.

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The state has directed the district machinery to take at least 450 samples per day to check clustering of Covid-19 cases.

As on Wednesday, the total cases of Coronavirus disease in Haryana were 190. Of these 32 were in Gurugram with 1 death. The district had six active containment zones as on Wednesday.

Gurugram chief medical officer Dr Jaswant Singh Punia said they collect about 300 samples every day from public and private hospitals. “On some days, we collect about 400 samples. When the sample number is high (more than 300), we approach private labs (Core Diagnostics and SRL Labs) for testing as directed by the state health department. Other labs are doing tests as per their capacity,” Dr Punia said.

As per the data shared by the district health department, private labs have tested an overall 2,173 samples in Gurugram till now. Largely, samples are sent to PGIMS Rohtak for testing, which individually tests at least 150 samples per day.

It must be noted that right now the state is only testing a limited number of samples provided by private hospitals where suspected patients are taken.

“We are consistently doing tests in our labs, working in three shifts for 24 hours. We did not anticipate the volume of samples would be skyrocketing. We are receiving samples from the health department along with private hospitals and collection from home,” Zoya Brar of the Core Diagnostic said.

According to Brar, the lab is not in short supply of RT-PCR kits as they are in contact with five different vendors. “We cannot stock kits but we do have a sufficient number that can last for a few days. We are ensuring a constant supply of kits,” she said, adding that testing should be further ramped up.

Dr Risabh Singh Rajput of Modern Diagnostic, one of the ICMR approved labs, said, “We are following the ICMR protocol, taking samples from the private hospital. We are testing 15-20 samples every day.”

When HT tried contacting SRL and other labs they refused to comment.

HURDLES

Officials said the state government wants the labs to play a larger role and the labs can sign voluntary memorandum of understanding (MoU) to take on additional samples when they increase testing, but only three of the six labs have done that.

“As a part of the MoU, the private labs will have to collect samples and test it within a defined time period. As per the norm, they have to ensure the samples are collected from a spot within two hours and test results have to be delivered within 36 hours. Most of the labs are not comfortable with the turnaround time. One of the conditions is that if they are not able to deliver the results in the stipulated time, we would deduct 20% of the overall testing cost per sample,” an officer with the Haryana Medical Services Corporation Ltd, which coordinates supply of all medical infrastructure across the state, said asking not to be named.

He also said that the state is trying to reach out to labs who are ready to provide services for the entire state instead of focusing on two to four districts only. “A few of these labs want to restrict to Gurugram alone. It is for this reason we are not able to utilize the potential of private labs,” he said.

“Only three labs have agreed to this proposal while the remaining three have expressed their reluctance. We are still talking to them as it would aid in increasing the overall testing capacity, though we are simultaneously increasing the capacity in government set up too,” another HMSCL officer said.

Officials said the samples exceeding the government lab capacity are sent to private labs for testing and the payment (₹4,500 per test) is being done by the state government.

In Haryana, more than 6,000 samples have been tested until now. Out of which 4,591 tested negative and results are awaited for 1617 samples.

There are two government labs — PGIMS, Rohtak, and a BPS Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat — are testing. The capacity of two government labs is at least 200 samples a day. They are trying to increase the capacity to 500 tests per day.

LABS HESITANT

Officials and lab experts said the hesitation in the current scenario could be traced to lack of sufficient field force to collect samples from different districts.

Brar, who has been working with the Haryana government on various health projects said, “Government has been considering labs that are ready to deploy their field force in collecting samples from different districts and give timely results. It is difficult also as visiting different districts, collecting samples and bringing it to the testing lab is not an easy process. It requires manpower.”

Meanwhile, to speed up testing, a government lab has been set up in Faridabad’s ESIC Hospital stating Monday. A CSIR lab in Chandigarh is also functional and they are in the process of establishing five more labs in Nuh, Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak, and Panchkula. Health officials said they are authorised to send samples to Dr Lal Path labs and Dr Dangs lab in Delhi.