Delhi bars labs ‘flouting’ rules, test capacity dips

nNEWDELHI:A crisis of rules, procedures and performance of testing centres has put the government, labs and hospitals in Delhi on a collision course and led to a substantial setback to the national capital’s capacity to diagnose patients and check the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19)

The crisis came to a peak on Thursday when eight labs were banned from carrying out tests after the government pulled them up for not following protocols, and, according to the health minister, taking too long to report results.

“Some labs were giving reports very late.if someone has taken a test for the coronavirus, the reports should be ready in 24 hours. At times, some have not given results for 5-6 days. This leads to a delay in hospitalisations because the special corona facilities say they will accept only patients who have a positive test.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government said on Thursday that private hospitals facing challenges in earmarking 20% of their beds for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients will be declared as complete Covid-19 facilities, and ordered all institutions to discharge any mild or asymptomatic cases as concerns mounted over the city’s preparations to handle a surge in cases.

Other hospitals refuse to admit unless someone is confirmed to be corona-free,” health minister Satyender Jain told reporters.

The government also believes that the labs, by testing asymptomatic and low-risk individuals in violation of the testing guidelines, are effectively creating a bottleneck where people who desperately

The announcement came a day after the administration declared three private facilities -- Sir Ganga Ram hospital, Moolchand hospital and Saroj hospital -- as Covid-19-only centres.

On May 24, the Delhi government directed 117 hospitals to set aside 20% of their beds for Covid-19 patients. So far 72 private hospitals in the city have dedicated Covid-19 beds. need to be tested have to wait. The counter argument is that testing of asymptomatic lowrisk individuals was not resulting in any reduction in overall positivity rates (proportion of positives to tests) in the state, setting alarm bells ringing about the magnitude of the problem.