Noida will retest pvt lab samples found +ve

Noida: The health department has decided to retest all samples that have been confirmed positive by private labs from now on. The move comes after at least 15 false positive cases were reported in the district by various private labs and six labs were sent notices, while a complaint was filed against another for unauthorised mobile testing.
There are 32 private labs authorised by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for testing Covid samples, and more than two-thirds of the tests being conducted in the district are currently from these. However, officials said there are only five private labs whose reports are reliable and don’t need to be re-checked. They added that there are several positive reports from labs daily that are not mentioned in the ICMR list.
“Many labs have an internal system of re-verification and can be trusted. We don’t need additional tests for them at the government labs. However, we had been getting false positive reports from some private labs that caused panic among residents. We have also written to ICMR about the mushrooming of such centres. The private centres need to follow all protocols and safety measures. These are samples for a pandemic, not a routine blood test,” said Suhas LY, district magistrate.
Meanwhile, health department officials met 15 representatives of private labs on Thursday to discuss ICMR guidelines.
“The labs have been instructed that they should report all results on a daily basis. As of now, the accredited labs upload all data to the ICMR portal. However, it takes much time to reach us as UP uses a different portal,” said Dr Nepal Singh, the nodal officer for sampling.
There are various collection centres and mobile testing facilities that claim to be authorised by accredited labs. However, Singh said they had no information about these.
“We don’t have a list of authorised centres or mobile collection vehicles that are affiliated to these ICMR accredited labs. This makes it difficult for us to trust the credibility of the sample collection process. We have asked labs to give us a list of collection centres they have authorised,” said Nepal Singh.
Earlier this week, the health department had found a person collecting samples on a two-wheeler outside a private hospital in Noida.