State moves to ensure quality control in Covid testing labs

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With sample testing going up and with more labs getting approved for Covid testing in the state, the department of health and family welfare is introducing quality assessment and quality control of laboratories performing RTPCR test for Covid-19.
The department has issued a set of guidelines stating that the assessment method would help in ascertaining the level of functioning of the laboratory, their fidelity to standard operating procedure and the best practices being adopted. It also points out that the assessment will help in raising the bar of the labs and ensure that there is no chance of an error.
Doubts have recently surfaced over test results in Idukki and Thiruvananthapuram. In Idukki, three cases which were declared as positive by the district administration were later termed negative by the state government.
In the Thiruvananthapuram case, Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments came out with contradictory results regarding a 68-year-old man with the state declaring him Covid ‘positive’ and Tamil Nadu declaring him ‘negative’.
This confusion had highlighted the chances of ‘false positive’ cases. However, neither the health department nor the chief minister cleared the air and maintained that he was positive.
Later, the state health department declared two persons admitted to Thiruvananthapuram Medical College for Covid as negative in less than four days without dispelling serious doubts about their actual status. Within two weeks the capital had reported three cases in which people admitted to the medical college for Covid-19 had yielded repeated negative results within four days.
The new quality assessment measure is expected to address such concerns and improve accuracy of test results. The arrival of NRKs has further reinforced the need for accurate results since health infrastructure needs to be judiciously used.
As part of quality assessment, two assessors have been designated for each of the 18 labs across the state. The assessors shall randomly select three positive and three negative samples tested in the previous two weeks for quality control from the list of samples being tested. Negative samples will be taken in case of absence of positive ones. The samples and will be sent to NIV Alappuzha on the same day of collection.
The quality assessment will be performed twice a month and officials have been directed to maintain confidentiality regarding all information being collected.
Earlier ICMR has directed states to send them five samples each for quality assessment. However, no progress was made regarding this. It remains to be seen whether NIV Alappuzha would be overburdened with the arrival of the quality assessment samples.