NEW DELHI: After several complaints being raised over delay in getting the Covid-19 testing results, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday instructed private labs not to pick samples beyond their capacity. “Delhi was the only city where test reports were being given within 24 hours. Now we are receiving complaints that reports are being delayed by 2-4 days. The reason is that some laboratories have picked up more samples than their capacity.
The results are being delayed. For instance, if their capacity is 5,000 tests per day, they are collecting approximately 10,000-15,000 samples, and then taking 3-4 days to provide result,” the CM said while during a video conference. Kejriwal said that such practices and delays were putting people’s lives in danger. “A serious patient who gave his sample today and get result 3 days later, could also lose his life during these 3 days. You are playing with their life.
Strict action would be taken against such labs that collect more samples than their actual capacity and do not provide the report within 24 hours,” the chief minister said. Kejriwal added that the district magistrates (DMs) have also been asked to check the capacity of labs before sending samples to them. Kejriwal also spoke on the issue of availability of beds as shown in the Delhi Corona app and stated that stringent action will be taken against those hospitals which are not updating properly.
“The app shows the number of occupied or vacant beds, in a particular hospital, on a realtime basis. We do not directly operate this app. Each hospital inserts data in the app on its own. So, if a particular hospital has stated that they have 40 beds available in the app; and if someone goes to that hospital looking for a bed and they refuse to provide it, strict action would be taken against such hospitals. We have been receiving multiple complaints like this.
Those hospitals that are providing wrong information on the app or on phone calls would face strict action,” he mentioned. The Delhi government also issued an order for linking of public and private sector diagnostic labs to ensure timely processing of samples for the Covid-19 test, the authorities said on Friday. The bulletin said that an “order has been issued regarding linkage of public and private sector labs with each district of the NCT of Delhi to ensure adequate number of slots available in labs to get their samples processed within a stipulated time frame”.