MADURAI: Despite testing negative, a woman and her grandson were shifted to Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) on Tuesday afternoon for ‘Covid-19 treatment’. The duo is the primary contacts of a 34-year-old techie from Palanganatham who tested positive on August 29.
Speaking to TNIE, the IT professional, who was working in Mangaluru until mid-June, said that a day after he tested positive at a private hospital in KK Nagar, his close contacts - 68-year-old mother, 75-year-old father and 13-year-old nephew - underwent test at the Urban Primary Health Centre in Palanganatham and their samples were sent to Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) in Madurai Medical College.
“Around 12.30 pm on Tuesday, the staff of Madurai corporation shifted all the three to GRH in an ambulance claiming that they tested positive for Covid-19. They were subsequently admitted to COVID-19 isolation ward at the superspeciality block at the hospital, and upon request, all of them were accomadated in a room later,” he said.
The techie said he was in for a shock the same evening, around 6.30 pm, when he received an SMS from Madurai Medical College saying that the test results of his mother and nephew were negative. “Until Wednesday evening, we did not get any SMS regarding my father’s test result,” he said. The techie said that when alerted the corporation staff on Tuesday night about the discrepancy, they had told him that the three persons were listed as Covid-19 patients in the line list they received on Tuesday morning.
Upon verification of the Covid test status of the three by TNIE, it was found that the techie’s septuagenarian father had tested positive while his wife and grandson tested negative. GRH Dean Dr J Sangumani also confirmed that only the septuagenarian had tested positive. Commenting on the issue, City Health Officer Dr P Kumaragurubaran said that a list containing details of persons who test positive is sent by the VRDL at the Madurai Medical College to the office of Deputy Director of Health Services and to the City Health Officer every morning, while the list of those who test negative is being retained by the VRDL. “It is VRDL that maintains the comprehensive list,”said.
For the first time
Though similar mess-ups in the COVID-19 positive line list were reported earlier from pvt laboratories, this is for the first time that it is being reported from VRDL in Madurai Medical College.