Two days after a man was reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 after 34 days in self-quarantine in Hosur, the confirmatory test returned negative on Sunday. The person currently in the government medical college hospital will be discharged after following the standard operating procedures for contagious diseases, Collector S.Prabhakar said on Monday.
Consequently, Krishnagiri continued to remain as the only green district in the State.
“There was nothing new about false positives and negatives. In clinical pathology, false positives and false negatives is acceptable globally, and world wide there are several such cases. The reason, we had sent a second sample was because of the peculiarity of testing positive after 34 days in self-quarantine, though it cannot be completely ruled out in asymptomatic carriers” said Dr. Prabhakar.
While the first sample was tested in Hosur, the second sample was sent to the King Institute, Chennai as the normal incubation period for the virus is 14 days, but in this case, the person had completed 34 days in self-quarantine upon his return home for the lockdown.
Also, in clinical science, the results will have to be corelated with the symptoms and will be examined case by case, be it a false positive or a false negative, he added.
“All results and machines and techniques are standardised to deal with issues of this kind. And when we get such outcomes, we also follow the standard operating procedures and the WHO guidelines to deal with these issues,,” Dr.Prabhakar explained.
According to him, the person, who is currently in the medical college hospital is kept in a highly safe and uncontaminated zone, and the Dean has been advised by the State health authorities to ensure no other hospital staff other than an exclusively designated medical care staff enter that room. The person will be subsequently discharged in compliance with the standard operative procedures, Dr.Prabhakar said.