C T Online Desk: Many people are getting delayed report of the coronavirus test from RT PCR labs of a number of public hospitals across the country, including in Dhaka.
Health experts and physicians said the death rate in coronavirus infection may increase due to the delayed corona test report as it will result in delayed treatment.
At the same time, the long delay in coronavirus testing and report delivery has created great trouble and mental agonies for the people seeking treatment facilities in the country.
Many people alleged that they are not getting corona testing reports quickly though the authorities concerned have reportedly expanded facilities for Covid-19 testing.
Alif Hosssain, a resident of the city’s Mirpur area, said he gave sample to Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital on January 25 and got the test report on January 29.
Talking to the Daily Sun, some people said they gave necessary samples to sample collection booths at different places in the capital, but got reports after a long delay — around 4-5 days in some cases.
Sometimes, Covid-19 patients are also getting negative results of their test around 4-5 days after the reports which is keeping the patients in serious mental crisis even after making recovery.
“A little bit of backlog has been created in our hospital and we are trying to regularise it. However, my staff are now working in two shifts to overcome the backlog,” Dr Md Khalilur Rahman, director of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, told the Daily Sun on Monday.
Talking to the Daily Sun about delayed corona test report, Prof Dr Nazmul Islam, spokesperson of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said, “Delaying corona test report delivery is rare case. However, it may happen anywhere in individual case. If the sample is received before holiday, then the test report may be delayed.”
“Delivery of the test reports may take few times due to the process of collecting samples, testing and then delivery of the reports to the DGHS central coordination system. If any report comes after certain time, then it is not possible to receive the report in the day,” the DGHS official added.
However, talking to the Daily Sun, the authorities of some public hospitals said they receive a limited number of samples everyday for RT PCR test to keep the corona test report delivery regular.
“We take only 150 samples at our Out Patient Department and 30 samples are designated for Patient Department everyday. It is our capacity for RT PCR test,” Dr Niatuzzaman, acting director of Mugda Medical College Hospital, told the Daily Sun.
In this situation, a large number of people also cannot give samples for RT PCR test of coronavirus in many public hospitals.
Health experts said a delay in corona-testing report delivery pushes people into mental crisis as they remain worried before getting the test reports thinking whether they are positive or negative for Covid.
The physicians said delayed corona test report in some times means delayed start of treatment. “If the corona infection is not detected immediately, then the person may spread the infection to others. In some cases, the severe illness may deteriorate further if the treatment doesn’t start,” Dr Hena Khan, a respiratory medicine expert at Dhaka Medical College, told the Daily Sun.
The health experts have also put emphasis on increasing coronavirus testing facilities ‘immediately’ across the country to ensure that the spread of the extremely pandemic disease can be contained by isolating infected people from others.
“The government should immediately increase the coronavirus testing facilities across the country and increase the number of test,” Prof Dr Nazrul Islam, member of National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19, said.
Health experts have advised the government to appoint an adequate number of manpower, including medical technologists, to deliver the coronavirus test reports rapidly.
“Out of my total eight staff for the corona test activities, six were detected with the virus infection and they were sent to isolation. In this situation, I faced difficulty to run the lab,” Dr Khalilur Rahman, chief of Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, said.
The DGHS said there are a total of 865 corona test labs — 155 RT PCR labs (56 government and 99 private), 57 GeneXpert (54 government and three private) and 648 Rapid Antigen (545 government and 108 private) in the country, including in Dhaka city.
The data said there are around 90 RT PCR labs for corona test in Dhaka and its adjacent areas while around 20 of them are situated in government institutes and hospitals.
The DGHS said some 45,358 samples were tested in the country in the last 24 hours till Monday morning.
Talking to the Daily Sun, some people said amid the fresh surge of the coronavirus infection in the country, people have become hopeless due to difficult process of corona test in public hospitals.
