Now, family puts up banner with Covid negative test results

Coimbatore: A banner installed in front of a house at Ramachandra Nagar near Hopes College thanking the corporation for identifying four from a family as Covid-19 positive has created a furore.
The banner was put up by the family members themselves, who later tested negative for the virus.
“Four of my family members, including two children, took Covid-19 test at a fever camp conducted in our locality on August 31. On September 3, we received a call from the primary health centre (PHC) and authorities said all four of us are positive for the virus,” said Ilavarasan, who put the banner.
As none of them had any symptoms, they got tested again at a private laboratory in the city on September 4, results of which found all of them negative.
“After the corporation blocked the entrance to our house with metal sheets and announced it as a containment area, our neighbours started behaving differently... it was so humiliating. That’s why I placed the banner with negative test results in front of my house,” Ilavarasan added.
When contacted, a corporation official said, “when you repeat a test almost five days after the initial test, the results may vary. As all the four patients are asymptomatic, we don’t know in which stage they took the tests. In this case, an elderly person from their family had died of Covid-19 on August 31 and that’s why they were tested. They might have been in final stage of the infection when they were tested and that’s why the test results that was taken after five days gap has opposite results.”