Error or relapse? Tests flip-flop on 2 Covid patients

TNN | Apr 14, 2020, 07:05 IST

Noida: Two Covid-19 patients, who had been discharged after two negative tests showed they were free of the novel coronavirus, were re-admitted to hospital on Saturday night after a third report threw up a positive.
Both patients, a man and a woman, were treated at Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), one of the two state-run Covid hospitals in Noida. They had been discharged after two samples taken in a span of 48 hours had tested negative (from the Aligarh lab). A chest X-ray was clear too. However, the third sample, taken during discharge, tested positive (also from the Aligarh lab)and the patients were brought back to the hospital after that.
Officials said that the positive report could be a lab error as another sample taken after readmission turned out negative (this was sent to NCDC, Delhi) and a second sample had also been taken on Monday for another check. So, the doctors are not calling it a relapse.
Brigadier Rakesh Gupta (retd), director of GIMS, said, “We can’t say that these are reinfection cases. It seems like a technical error from the lab as the retest has been confirmed negative and the patients are doing fine.”
Patients are discharged after 14 days in isolation if two of their Covid-19 samples taken 24 hours apart test negative, if their X-rays are clear, and they are asymptomatic. Officials said that the patients were discharged only after all these parameters were checked.
The patients’ X-rays are still normal and they are asymptomatic.
“After getting the patients admitted again, we took another sample and sent it to NCDC, Delhi, for testing. The report for both patients was negative. We have taken another sample and the report is expected soon. If it is also negative, we will discharge these patients,” said Dr Saurabh Srivastava, in-charge of the isolation ward at GIMS.