Family members of proven cases of COVID-19 have to undergo a test only if they develop symptoms, a senior public health official has said. But, they should remain in quarantine for 14 days, the official said.
In initial stages of the pandemic, the Health Department used to subject the family members and close contacts to testing even if they did not have symptoms.
According to the Health Department, 15 facilities in the district are offering COVID-19 testing. Of these, Coimbatore Medical College Hospital and the Government Medical College and ESI Hospital are the only Government facilities.
On rumours on social media that government agencies and private laboratories get paid for more COVID-19 tests, officials clarified that private laboratories did not get any incentive from the Government for conducting more tests. As private laboratories were supposed to enter the details of tested persons in the Government portal, room for manipulation of results was very less, they said.
Meanwhile, allegations have been levelled against certain private hospitals that they asked about the salary and profession of COVID-19 patients before admitting them.
Sources with a few private hospitals in Coimbatore said that details such as the profession of the patient were collected as part of preparing the patient registry and hospital record but income or salary of patients was not asked as part of admission procedure.
Joint Director of Health Services P. Krishna did not respond on whether private hospitals were supposed to ask the salary of patients before admission and charge them accordingly.
