Positivity rate at Amritsar airport dips 5 times after lab change
AMRITSAR: With every seventh person of 10 arriving at the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport over Thursday and Friday testing positive for Covid 19 (translating into a worryingly high positivity rate of 65%) creating panic and forcing authorities to investigate, there was some respite on Saturday, after the laboratory, Spicehealth, was changed.
“Of 192 passengers, 25 tested positive (13% positivity rate) for Covid-19 on Saturday,” said airport director VK Seth. On the drastic dip in the positivity rate, he said, “Three state health authorities and our expert team are working to ascertain the reason. For now, we changed the lab that conducted tests on Thursday and Friday.”
The new lab that a Dr Tejinder Bhasin heads conducted Covid-19 test of 192 passengers who landed at the airport in an Air India flight from Birmingham about 10am on Saturday.
This lab had been operating at the airport for six months, being replaced by Spicehealth in the last week of December.
Punjab’s health authorities are also probing the testing mechanism of Spicehealth.
On Thursday, 125 of 179 (70%) passengers had tested positive upon landing at the airport from Italy; on Friday, 172 of 285 (60%) flyers, again from Italy, were found positive.
A state health department official said, “We have asked airport
authorities to submit their probe report into the testing mechanism of Spicehealth lab. There might be a technical glitch with their machines, or a chemical that the lab was using could be the issue.”
Retesting on for nearly 300
Amritsar assistant civil surgeon Dr Amarjit Singh said, “Those who tested positive on Thursday and Friday are being retested by respective district administrations. Of 125 who tested positive on Thursday, 11 were from Amritsar district; of 172 tested positive on Friday, 20 were from Amritsar. We are conducting re-testing of these 31 passengers by approaching them at their
homes; four have tested negative as of now.”
A 42-year-old man from Amritsar, who returned from Italy with his son, was among 125 passengers tested positive on Thursday.
Talking to HT over phone, his nephew said, “We conducted a rapid test and a RT-PCR test of our uncle from a private lab in Amritsar; the result of both was negative. This is contrary to the report of the Amritsar airport lab. Before boarding the flight, my uncle and his son had undergone the RT-PCR test in Italy, which was valid for 72 hours. How could he be found positive merely eight hours after boarding the plane? This is a big scam that needs investigation.”