Health department directs private labs to fall in line

As the number of people infected with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) continues to swell with the total count reaching 903 on Monday evening, a delay of at least

As the number of people infected with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) continues to swell with the total count reaching 903 on Monday evening, a delay of at least three days by private laboratories in the city in delivering the Covid-19 test reports to the patients and the district health department is adding to the challenges being faced by the administration in controlling the spread of the infectious disease, officials said.

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Earlier this week, the district administration and health department held a meeting with representatives of private lab directing them to streamline the testing process and share the test reports on time.

On May 28, the health department issued a notice to CORE diagnostic lab for not submitting the complete test results of Covid-19 positive patient on time. The notice stated that a sample was sent to the lab on May 22 and the health department received the test result on May 28 only after repeated calls were made to the private lab. The notice further stated that the lab was not following government’s instruction on sharing Covid-19 test results.

Dr Jaswant Singh Punia, chief medical officer, said, “We have not received a response from CORE diagnostic lab yet. We have observed that many private labs were conducting tests without collecting the proper ID proof of the patient, or even complete addresses of the patients, and the labs were not uploading the reports on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal on time. They are taking at least three days to deliver the results. We are working to streamline the process to prevent further spread of the disease.”

There are seven private labs in Gurugram who are approved by ICMR to conduct Covid-19 tests.

Data shows nearly 43% of the samples collected in Gurugram have been tested in private labs. From April 9 to May 31, at least 7,231 samples have been tested by the government labs and 5,357 by private labs.

“As per the protocol, labs have to put the test reports on the ICMR portal. What has been happening in Gurugram is that the lab reports are reaching the patients first, and then to the health department which delays the process of tracing the direct and indirect contacts of the patients. A delay of one day doesn’t matter much, but a delay of three days increases the chances of the highly infectious disease spreading further to others in the patient’s family,” said a member of the district’s rapid response team, who is privy to the matter.

According to official data, one Covid-19 patient in Gurugram has affected at least two people on an average, and to three people in many cases. The state and district health departments, however, refused to share the details of the infection rate called RO(pronounced as R-naught). The RO is a unit used to measure the number of new infections generated by each case.

Upon the last calculation by ICMR in April, the national RO value was 2.5. Also, an ICMR study in April predicted that a Covid-19 patient can infect 406 people in 30 days if preventive measures such as lockdown and social distancing are not implemented.

A senior state official said, “Government teams are ensuring that the suspected patient puts himself/herself under quarantine until test reports come. Private labs also cannot let go of the suspected patients after taking their swab samples. Once the test reports come, they are required to inform the patients and the district health team. However, in many cases, a delay in reporting to the health officials was reported. It is for this reason that we have directed the private labs to follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) for sample testing which includes, timely test results and sharing the data on ICMR portal.”