Five private labs issued notices for flouting testing protocol

Gurgaon: The health department on Tuesday issued show cause notices to five private laboratories in the city for not following the protocol for samples’ testing.
They have been given 48 hours to reply why legal action should not be taken against them.
According to the health department officials, of all the tests done in the district in a day, 70% are carried out at private labs. The protocol is clear, before collecting the sample, labs need to take a copy of the permanent address of the person getting tested and his/her mobile number. This helps the health department to isolate the patient if he/she tests positive and also carry out contact tracing.
In the last 15 days, the city has been collecting around 600 samples daily, of which 400 samples tested in private labs, officials said.
According to health department data, details of around 500 people, who had got their samples tested at these five private labs, were missing from the files and the records were incomplete. “We have asked the five private labs to submit their response within 48 hours regarding the issue. Incomplete data, mobile number and address is the reason that our rapid response teams are unable to trace the Covid-19 patients and thus the contact tracing process is also getting affected,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurgaon.
So far, Gurgaon has tested 24,707 samples, of which 19,429 were found negative.
“Our teams are calling each person to verify the details and we are sending people to check their address. In cases, where we can’t contact the patient, we are taking the police department’s help,” Yadav added.