Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, June 12: Bureau Chief of a leading national news channel was among 102 people who tested positive in Kashmir taking the number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir to 4730.
Medical Superintendent SKIMS Soura, Dr Farooq Jan, told Excelsior that 3298 samples processed at the viral diagnostic lab of the hospital today and 56 tested positive. Among them, 22 are from Shopian, 10 Baramulla, six Srinagar, five each from Kulgam and Kupwara, two each from Bandipora and Anantnag besides one from Pulwama.
Principal SKIMS Bemina, Dr Riyaz Untoo, told Excelsior that 536 samples were processed at the Virology lab of the hospital and 35 tested positive. Among them 29 were from Shopian and six from Budgam.
And at CD hospital Srinagar lab, 500 samples were processed and 11 tested positive. They include seven from Srinagar and two each from Pulwama and Baramulla.
The National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune has declared the controversial sample of a Bureau Chief of a leading National news channel as positive after the sample was declared as COVID-19 negative at SKIMS, Soura earlier. His sample tested positive at the GMC’s Chest Diseases Laboratory last week and later the journalist went to SKIMS Soura to take a fresh sample which tested negative.
However, after there was controversy over the test report of the journalist, the GMC Srinagar sent the sample to National Institute of Virology, Pune. The confirmation given by a scientist at NIV, Pune States that that the graph and CT values shared with them have been tested positive.
In this regard, the Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar also issued a statement today, confirming that the run of the same was rechecked initially by the senior faculty members of the department.
“…later on this run file was sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for rechecking who have rechecked our run file and given a positive confirmation of our already reported result,” GMC said in a press statement issued here.
It said that the RT-PCR positivity begins from day second and maximum positivity is found between day 5-7 of the infection and the positivity decreases thereafter.
It has been put forth that those who tested positive initially and later tested negative on retest after 48 to 72 hours were in later part of the infection during initial tests and subsequently were in a phase where “RNA was undetectable.”
The same situation has been applied to the samples from Kashmir Nursing Home, Kulgam and Pulwama where the gap between the initial positive tests and negative retests was more than 24 hours.
The doctors said that the false-negative tests are a bigger problem than false-positive tests as these patients can be silent spreaders of infection.
With regard to the higher number of positives recorded each day from CD Lab, the GMC stated that at the beginning of this month the Lab was almost catering to the whole of Kashmir and in addition receiving samples of the returnees and from Jammu also.
The lab has been reporting just under 2000 tests in 24 hours, resulting in more positives. However, at present, the lab is receiving around 500 samples each day.
“When the travel ban was lifted our sample load increased tremendously as the districts which were initially sending their samples to SKIMS were also directed to our lab,” it said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
