Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Jan 27: As COVID-19 cases witness a spike, people are facing a tough time due to the time taken by the RT-PCR test reports across Kashmir even as the officials state the same is happening due to the increased number of samples collected amid limited capacity across laboratories.
Several people told Excelsior that they went to the TRC sample collection centre where they were told that their reports will be available after 10 days.
The same is the situation at other sample collection centres where the reports of RTPCR tests come after several days; however, the officials said that they are not ready to accept that the reports come after 10 days.
It is to be noted here that lately, the number of COVID tests per day has been increasing even as the Health Department stated that it carried out the record-40 thousand tests in one day which was termed to be the highest since the outbreak of the pandemic.
At the same time, the capacity of processing the samples has not seen much improvement and has remained largely the same even though three more additional RTPCR machines have been installed at JLNM, Srinagar, Ganderbal as well as Pulwama.
Officials said that there is a need to understand that with more and more samples taken for testing, that will automatically increase the time taken for making the reports available as the capacity of processing the samples has remained by and large the same with the addition of a few more facilities.
“I had developed symptom and went for the COVID testing at TRC after the samples were collected, I along with my sister was told that the test reports will be available after 10 days-which is bizarre,” one of the persons who visited the TRC for COVID sampling said.
He said that for the next 10 days, he will not have any surety whether he is positive or negative and that will also cause other issues.
DHSK Spokesperson Dr Mir Mushtaq told Excelsior that there is no delay in the RTPCR reports across Kashmir and everything is being done well within the capacity.
“The RTPCR reports have been taking some time and that is due to the increased sampling and the limited capacity of the sample processing even though the number of RTPCR machines has not remained the same, rather, we have the machines even in districts where we have been able to process the samples,” he said.
He said that with the spike in the cases, the increased testing was the need of the hour and that the health department including that of the staff involved in the sampling, testing has been working tirelessly.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel