KOZHIKODE: On November 1, Rahul Dineshan, an IT professional and native of Vengali in Kozhikode, decided to take a Covid test as he had to go on an urgent official trip to Dubai. Since Covid testing was mandatory to travel to other countries, he approached a private laboratory in the city and completed the test procedures. The laboratory workers assured him of providing the results in two hours, based on which he drove back home and, as usual, behaved normally with the family, even though he decided to stay at home till the results come.
The wait prolonged for two days and finally he got his test report from the health department, which informed him that he was Covid positive. But in these two days, Rahul mingled with the family and did not follow room isolation or quarantine as he was not informed by anyone about the result. Now, the entire family including Rahul’s mother, sister, wife and five-year-old daughter are under home isolation and will have undergo tests in a few days again.
This is not a lone incident, as more than 50 per cent of the people who underwent Covid testing in the district had to wait for one to two days to get their test results. The delay in delivering the test reports is becoming a critical hurdle to preventing Covid spread, according to sources. It is learnt that the average waiting time is two days but, in some cases, it can take up to five days.
According to private laboratory owners in the district, the protocol prevents them from disclosing the Covid test results to the persons directly. The test reports are informed by the government health officials to the person concerned. This procedure is causing the delay. Dr Raveendran N, noted physician here, a similar case of local transmission was reported in Pathanamthitta recently. In that case, the person’s test result was delayed by four days by which time he had mingled with his family members and neighbours. In the end, 10 people tested positive for Covid-19.
“This is an issue going unaddressed in different parts of the state. The one solution is to allow private labs to inform the Covid test result to the person directly, instead of waiting for a health department official to contact him/her. By doing so, the person can go into quarantine and prevent spreading the infection around,” he said. “A delay of even a day is critical given that the peak of contagiousness lasts about one week. In that time, scores more could be infected with the coronavirus if they come in contact with someone who may seem healthy. This makes the testing virtually useless.