VIRUDHUNAGAR: Even as Covid-19 infections are rising in the district, public as well as field workers are left in a spot of bother as negative results are not intimated to the tested, according to sources. Health officials, however, told TNIE that in the event the test results were not intimated to them, the public could contact the lab technician concerned to know the result. The normal time frame one can expect the results is two to three days.
Nonetheless, this recourse comes with its own problems as evidenced in the case of 28-year-old *Suresh from Rajapalayam. He gave his swabs at the Government Rajapalayam Hospital on July 15 after he developed mild Influenza Like Illness (ILI) symptoms. His neighbour had also tested positive.
The hospital told him to check via phone call if he did not receive his results within two days. When he did so, he was asked to call after another two days. "On both occasions, the hospital contact told me that I 'might' test negative as my results had not arrived even after four days," Suresh said.
Relaxed, Suresh resumed his normal routine for week till Wednesday (July 22) when he got a call from the hospital asking him to get himself admitted to the GH and have his family members tested. When he demanded a report, he was told, "We do not call unless we have the report." Suresh got himself admitted to the GH on Thursday. When Suresh's case was brought to the attention of the health officials, they said he might have contacted a 'wrong person' at the hospital.
Official response
Health department officials, however, said that an SMS was being sent from Chennai to those who tested negative, whereas positive results are distributed to the respective hospitals and centres in the district. "We have to contact an average 300 persons a day inform them of their positive results, and transport them to the hospital. Contact tracing and disinfection have to be done as well. With a lot on our plate already, we cannot inform those who tested negative," said an official.
Nonetheless, if they contacted the lab technician concerned they could learn about their results, he added. Collector R Kannan said one can also learn about one's result by contacting the control room at 1077.
(*Name has been changed)