In Kangra, RT-PCR reports delayed by over one week

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 7

The RT-PCR reports in Kangra district are being delayed by over a week. Sources told The Tribune that the reports of RT-PCR tests conducted in Kangra district on April 29 were still awaited. This was posing problems for people who want to travel outside the state and require RT-PCR negative report, employees working in private and government sector and many patients who are symptomatic.

Problem of human resource management

One of my employees was having flu-like symptoms. I asked him to get an RT-PCR test done. It has been over a week but he has not received his test report. The delay in test reports is creating problems in human resource management.— Owner of an Industrial unit

The owner of an industrial unit said: “One of my employees was having flu-like symptoms. I asked him to get an RT-PCR test done. It has been over a week, but the test report has not been received. The delayed reports are creating problems in human resource management”.

Some patients have expressed doubts over the delay in reports. They said the way reports were being delayed, it created doubts over their authenticity as samples were potent for testing for just 24 hours under ideal conditions. Some doctors said one-week delay in receiving the report might also be the time difference between life and death of Covid patients.

Sources said in a video-conferencing meet yesterday, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had expressed concern over the delay in RT-PCR test reports. He had asked the district health authorities to ramp up testing facilities so that patients do not suffer.

The CMO, Kangra, GD Gupta admitted that there was a delay. He said tests were being conducted, but due to huge samples being received daily in Kangra district, the reporting of RT-PCR tests was getting delayed. He said these days due to increasing number of cases in the district, more than 4,000 samples were being collected for RT-PCR tests. In the recent past, samples from Chamba were also coming to Kangra district. Due to such a huge number of samples received, the reporting was being delayed.

The CMO said in government sector, the RT-PCR samples for Covid infection were being tested in Tanda Medical College laboratory and IHBT Palampur labs. In private sector, two laboratories of SRL and one other laboratory had been authorised to conduct RT-PCR tests. They were testing on an average 150 samples a day, he said.

Asked why other private hospitals were not being authorised to conduct RT-PCR tests, the CMO said as per the ICMR norms, private laboratories would need to install equipment worth Rs 1 crore to meet the standards. In Kangra district, there were hardly any such big private hospital to install the equipment of that standard, Gupta added.

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