ICMR to review COVID-19 testing licence to pvt labs

States like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar red-flag norms violation

NEW DELHI: With Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) mulling to take a note of the concerns raised by different states regarding private testing laboratories flouting ICMR norms in conducting COVID-19 confirmatory tests, it seems errant private labs may lose their “licence” to test the virus.

According to the ICMR officials, the apex research institute is preparing to review the permission granted to all such private labs against those states have red-flagged the issues of norms violation.

“Even though, the ICMR has no control over private testing labs and the research body of the Health Ministry is responsible for monitoring the functioning of the government labs only, the institute is ready to take required action against the errant private labs on the direction of the respective states,” the ICMR officials said, adding that if any particular state desires to review the approval process, the ICMR will get it done.

“A list of all such errant labs would be prepared and if found flouting the norms, necessary actions such as disapproving them from COVID-19 testing list and imposing a penalty would be taken against them,” the ICMR officials said.

Notably, the states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, etc have brought into the notice of the ICMR about the violation of ICMR norms by private labs.

There are several reports of samples being tested positive by private labs are found to be negative at government labs. In Noida, a pregnant woman, who was confirmed positive by a private lab, turned out to be free of coronavirus infection during a test at a government lab.

It's pertinent to mention here that Uttar Pradesh has sent several COVID-19 positive reports of a particular laboratory to NIV, Pune, for recalibration and as per the reports, several reports of private labs were found to be ‘false'.

In Haryana, several private

laboratories have been summoned notices by the state government for not sharing 'authentic' data of testing samples with the state agencies.

In Bihar, a private lab had come under the scanner of the state health department after it was found that a particular laboratory was sending the samples to Gurugram for confirmation.

It’s pertinent to mention here that Uttar Pradesh has sent several COVID-19 positive reports of a particular laboratory to NIV, Pune, for recalibration and as per the reports, several reports of private labs were found to be ‘false’