Delay in testing leaves migrants stuck in J’khand

RANCHI/DHANBAD: After gruelling journeys to return home, many migrants lodged in government quarantine centres across Jharkhand now find themselves stuck due to the inordinate delay in testing of samples that sometimes take over 15 days, even as the state struggles to boost the testing rate.

While many have been stuck at such centres for over 20 days, there have been reports of inmates being released without a confirmation of their Covid-19 status.

As of June 6, there were 70,655 migrant workers lodged in institutional quarantine across Jharkhand. The sudden influx of migrants has stretched the state’s testing mechanism. There are only seven real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machines installed in four government hospitals in the state. On an average, these machines are able to test a cumulative of 2,000 samples. There was a backlog of 9,599 untested samples in the state till June 6.

Jharkhand health minister Banna Gupta said the government is trying to boost the state’s testing capacity. “In order to ramp up our testing capacity, 30 Truenat machines have already been installed at all 24 district Sadar hospitals and six government owned medical colleges and hospitals. Through these machines, we will be able to sort out negative patients in no time. Swab samples, which are tested positive on Truenat, will then be sent for testing on RT-PCR machines for final confirmation.”