Time taken to get RTPCR results shoots up in city

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Omjasvin.MD@timesgroup.com

10.01.2022

Chennai: While it should generally take four to six hours for Covid-19 RTPCR test results to arrive, for many residents of the city, results are being delayed by one to three days.

Lakshmi S, a resident, said her father who had given a test on Wednesday in a private lab received his results only on Saturday. “We took a test in a private hospital. We could not wait for the test results. We went ahead with the CT scan and began his treatment,” she said.

Similarly, another 84 year-old woman, who got tested in a government hospital on Wednesday, received the results on Friday. “After my mother tested positive, the corporation officials visited my house in Velachery and took swabs of my wife and children on Saturday. We have not received the results till Sunday night,” said a resident, who did not want himself or the government hospital to be named.

While Covid-19 norms say a person can be discharged if they observe no fever after three days of testing positive in an RTPCR, a delay in results may end up the quarantine period for the patients. The delay has its mental aspects too.

A doctor from the microbiology department of Stanley GH said there was a rise in samples coming in from the corporation lately. “We process the day's samples fully. A day’s delay in RTPCR status can only occur in one or two cases,” the doctor said.

City corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said more than 30,000 tests were being done in the city lately.

This is an increase from the 20,000-odd tests done till last week.

“To our knowledge, results are given at the right time and there has been no delay. In case of specific private labs delaying the results, we will follow up with them,” he added.