Errors in reports, Covid lab closed - Too many positive cases from the lab made health department suspicious

Sanjay Mandal   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   02.07.20   : The state government has closed the Covid-19 testing laboratory of Suraksha Diagnostics, a private facility in Calcutta, for allegedly not following protocols, a lapse that officials said led to errors in many reports.

A team of officials from the health department on Tuesday visited the laboratory and found no microbiologist was involved in Covid-19 tests, said officials.

“This was one of the several anomalies detected by the team,” an official said.

Somnath Chatterjee, the director of Suraksha Diagnostics Pvt Ltd, did not take calls from The Telegraph on Wednesday.

“Standard Operating Procedure for detection of Covid-19 in suspected human cases by RT-PCR was not available at the time of the visit,” the health department letter issued to Suraksha Diagnostic Pvt Ltd reads.

“Significant anomaly was detected in the growth curves (for positive cases) suggesting definitive lack of technical knowledge and non-conformity RT-PCR Covid-19 testing protocol.”

An official in the health department said “too many positive cases from the laboratory” had made them suspicious about the authenticity of the reports. The reports of a number persons who tested positive for Covid-19 at the laboratory were found erroneous.

“This is dangerous because if a person not infected by the coronavirus tests positive because of faulty methods employed by a lab, the person gets admitted in a Covid ward. Usually, the next test is done after a week. In this one week the person can contract the virus from a patient in the ward,” an official said.

“There is no microbiologist involved in Covid-19 testing. The lab could also not produce the list of technical persons involved in Covid-19 testing,” the letter issued by the health department to Suraksha Diagnostics says.

Health officials said Covid-19 tests must be performed by trained microbiologists.

The laboratory has been told to adhere to protocol set by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) before it is allowed to conduct the test again.

Health department officials said it was important to have a large number of test-ing facilities to detect as many Covid cases as possible. “But we will also ensure qua- lity through more tight vigilance. We also need to increase our vigil to ensure that the units are all following the ICMR protocol,” an official said.

Bengal has 50-odd testing laboratories for Covid-19, including facilities at some  government and private hospitals. These laboratories  conducted 9,558 tests on Wed- nesday.