NEGATIVE NIV clears techie, Apollo staffer
Health minister heaves a sigh of relief; doctors express doubts over result
Negative. The test results on samples from two suspected coronavirus infections in the city from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, caused state health officials to heave a sigh of relief on Thursday.
Over 24 hours of anxiety after inconclusive results conducted at Gandhi General Hospital forced the patients’ naso-pharyngeal swabs to be sent to NIV, a visibly relieved minister Etala Rajendar said: “We had information in the morning about the tests being negative but held back this announcement until we received the reports from NIV.”
The medical community, however, reacted with disbelief. The samples were sent to NIV because of a heavy viral load.
According to the Centre’s guidelines, only those samples that test positive in a state government laboratory are to be sent to NIV. Those that test negative are not to be sent for re-testing.
The two cases tested positive in the Gandhi Hospital lab, but now test negative at NIV. The medical community is asking questions, considering the diagnostic kits are the same in both labs, on whether there is a margin of error in testing.
Incidentally, copies of the NIV reports arrived just as Mr Rajendar began his daily news conference on Covid-19. “This does not mean we are letting our guard down. There will be no let up in our efforts to keep Covid-19 at bay,” he said.
“People of Telangana are fortunate,” Rajendar said, adding that initially when they sent the samples to NIV, they believed that the results of the IT employee who returned from Italy might return as positive.
The minister was relieved that the housekeeping staffer from Apollo Hospitals in Secunderabad was also cleared as Covid-19 free.
“We were praying that the tests come out negative. Let’s hope there will be no more cases. Till today, there is not a single case of local transmission of the disease.”
The government was making every effort to stop Covid-19 in the State. “This is a global and national emergency,” the health minister said.
Appealing to people of Telangana to practice good hygiene, whether when coughing or sneezing and particularly with reference to hand hygiene, the state health minister urged people not to panic or spread fear about the disease.