VIRUDHUNAGAR: With an average daily caseload of over 400 in the last three days, the district has been witnessing a steep rise in the number of Coronavirus infections. Thursday's 480 Covid-19 cases is the highest so far in the district.
While officials say that the trend might continue for the next few days, the doctors working in the forefront see this as a major cause of concern, the reason being a huge backlog of cases and technical glitches.
As on July 22, sources said that the Covid test results of around 8,800 samples were pending, for the number of samples being collected has been increased to 2,500 since last week.
A senior doctor, on condition of anonymity, said that the increase in the number of tests are proving futile as they receive the results a week after sending samples. "The first week is crucial for treatment, particularly in Covid cases. The high-risk patients must be provided immediate care and the asymptomatic patients must be isolated, neither of which is happening," he said.
Further, sources said that there had been a technical issue in the data entry, resulting in delayed uploading of cases in the system. "There are many instances where people get the results after the symptoms subside," they said, citing the example of a couple who was admitted to the government hospital after they were cured of Influenza Like Illness with the help of their family doctor.
A resident of Sivakasi also said that most of the people do not wait for Covid results to be out. "They get a CT scan done and based on that, they get themselves treated by their family doctor in their house itself. In majority of the cases, the people get their results after the symptoms subside. The high-risk patients and those above 40 years are compulsorily being asked to get admitted at the government hospital even if they didn't get their results," he said.
However, when asked about the delay in releasing the test results, Collector R Kannan said that the samples are being sent to over five labs, including the Covid lab at Virudhunagar Medical College Hospital (VMCH), and the results are out in three days.
The district officials claimed that the results from only one private lab were delayed for over a week. It's in this lab that the swab samples of Rajapalayam MLA S Thangapandian were sent, they said.
When Express contacted the laboratory, the authorities said that they received the samples only on July 17 and all the results were released before July 22. "We have to prioritise those who regularly send samples to our lab. Handling bulk number of samples is difficult and we do our best to provide the results soon," they added.
Samples being sent to pvt labs due to low positivity rate?
Meanwhile, official sources alleged that the samples are being sent in bulk to private laboratories due to the low positivity rate in the test results provided by them. However, the collector refuted the allegations, saying that the samples are being sent only to ICMR-approved labs.
However, doctors claimed this trend as worrisome as asymptomatic carriers could spread the infection. "Test, trace and isolate is the slogan we keep on hearing. The latter two could be done only if we receive the results within a stipulated time. There is no use closing the stable door after the horse has bolted," added a health official.