35 People Were Admitted In A COVID-19 Ward For 3 Days After Wrong Test Result By Private Labs

At this point, we are not even sure what is the most shocking part here - to be told that you are COVID-19 positive, or three days later being told that, sorry, your results were wrong, you are fine, and you shared the space in a COVID-19 ward with other patients for no reason!

35 people in Noida are living this nightmare after private labs botched up their tests and told them that they are COVID-19 positive. According to NDTV, all of these 35 people had consulted private doctors for mild fever, cough, and cold.

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They were reportedly advised to take coronavirus tests and for that, they went to private labs. After the lab results came as COVID-19 positive, they were admitted to government isolation facilities where their samples were taken again and were sent to the National Institute of Virology. And at the test at NIV, all of them turned out to be negative and was subsequently discharged.

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Though they have been discharged from the COVID-19 wards, they have been kept under observation due to their three-day exposure to other patients in the isolation facility.

It is still unclear how the private labs, which were not approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for COVID-19 tests were conducting them in the first place. The labs were reportedly charging Rs 4,500 to 5,000 for each test.

Following a complaint, an FIR has been launched against one of the labs. The Noida Health Department which also investigated the incident found that there were lapses in sample collection by private lab employees. They allegedly did not maintain the samples at optimum temperature, which led to inaccurate results.

"Six labs have come to our notice over lapses in COVID-19 tests. An FIR has been filed against one and we have sent notices to the others," said Noida Chief Medical Officer Deepak Ohri. He said the ICMR guidelines for testing were violated.

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With the number of COVID-19 cases raising rapidly, in March the ICMR had allowed select private labs to conduct tests. As of now, about 453 laboratories across India are conducting these COVID-19 tests.

Initially, the ICMR had put a price cap, a maximum of Rs 4,500 for COVID-19 tests in private labs, however, this was later removed and respective states and union territories have been allowed to fix the cost.

In April the Supreme Court had suggested that the COVID-19 tests should be done for free, even at private labs.