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MP red-flags shortage of testing kits, Indore tally crosses 1000
Results of several samples sent to other states for testing are delayed, some by as much as 10 days.
The Madhya Pradesh government on Friday red-flagged a shortage of coronavirus testing kits and sought help from the Centre even as the Covid situation in the state remained grim with 25 of its 52 districts having positive cases.
To make matters worse, Covid-19 positive patients crossed the 1,000 mark in Indore-- the worst affected city in the state. Two other districts with positive cases in three digits include Bhopal (360) and Ujjain (102)..
Notably, the state government’s red-flag came just two days after chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan made an appeal to people saying, “Those whose samples have been taken need not go anywhere. Now, our testing capacity is 2,000 per day. Madhya Pradesh has 22520 RT PCR and 14200 manual RNA kits.”
The state is much behind its neighbouring states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat in samples collection and testing.
According to the state health bulletin released on Friday, the state has 1,846 Covid-19 positive patients including1029 from Indore alone.
State capital Bhopal has 360 patients, while Ujjain’s tally shot up to 102 on Friday from 76 on Thursday. There are at least 12 districts with patients tally in double-digit, which include Khargone with 61 patients, Dhar with 36, Khandwa with 35 and Jabalpur with 31 patients. 92 patients have died so far including 55 in Indore alone.
Drawing the attention of union health minister Dr Harshvardhan during a video conference on Friday, newly appointed health minister of the state Narottam Mishra said, “We have enough machines. We can get more machines but we don’t have testing kits. You will have to give more testing kits. Shivraj Singh Chouhan is making efforts to control the situation but if testing kits are made available, this will give relief to us.”
As per the report on April 19, the state government had ordered for 116,500 manual extraction kits but only got 14,200 such kits. Similarly, the government had ordered 102,600 RT PCR kits but got 22,520. The state was only left with 200 manual extraction kits and 5,300 RT-PCR testing kits in stock, triggering concern.
“We need the kits immediately,” Mishra told Harsh Vardhan on Friday.
In Indore, commissioner Akash Tripathi said that the administration was in touch with every vendor. “All of them have said waiting time for kits is about two weeks,” said Tripathi.
The officials said that because of the poor availability of kits in the state, samples were sent to other states for testing, leading to delays in getting results. As per health department officials, there is a delay of 7 to 10 days in getting reports since all the labs approved by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) are overburdened.
On Friday, Mishra urged the union health minister to intervene for the release of more than 1,700 test reports done by a Noida lab. On Friday itself, the state government sent as many as 1,600 samples--- 600 from Indore and 1,000 from Bhopal to Puducherry—hoping lab there will be able to provide early results.
Till Friday, the state had sent 35,076 samples for testing and received reports for 26,233 samples. As many as 8,843 reports were still pending, as per the state government’s report.
In Rajasthan, the Congress government has sent 74,400 samples for testing with only 4,343 reports pending. In Maharashtra, the number of samples sent for test stood at 96,369 as on Thursday.
The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19
Public health expert Amulya Nidhi said, “We have been saying right from day one that the government’s approach is wrong. It’s mainly focused on lockdown restrictions and social distancing, whereas the work on creating more and more labs to enhance the testing capacity of the state and getting more and more testing kits was lacking and stuck in a bureaucratic approach.”
