Noida: Five private labs served notices after eight 'false positives'

NOIDA: With reports of eight people who had tested positive from private labs coming back negative from government labs on Friday - the eight have been discharged from hospitals - the five private labs where the tests were conducted have been served notices.
"These false positives create panic. The chief medical officer is also writing to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to get these labs assessed.We are now seeing a growing number of sample collection centres that have tied up with accredited labs. But if there are problems during collection, the report may not be right. We are trying to check such cases and keeping an eye on all tests done at private labs now," said district magistrate Suhas LY.
From now on, all suspected Covid-19 cases based on private lab results will be verified by one of three government labs - GIMS, NIB or Child PGI, a district official said. The chief medical officer has issued directives to private labs about collection of samples - both in regular and mobile centres - asking them to strictly follow norms and that they will be verified by the sampling in charge of the health department.
90-year-old dies of Covid-19
A 90-year-old man from Sector 40 with acute respiratory problems who had been on ventilator died on Wednesday. But since his Covid-19 report came back only on Friday - he tested positive - his death was not added to the novel coronavirus tally until Friday. The district has reported six Covid-19 deaths so far. "The patient was admitted on May 26 and had been referred from another private hospital. He was already on ventilator but had not tested positive for Covid-19 till then. He passed away within 10 hours in the morning on May 27," said a Sharda Hospital spokesperson. He was cremated by hospital staff.
Health officials confirmed that the patient died of severe acute respiratory infection with severe sepsis. He also had comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease.
Another 72-year-old woman also died the same day, but the details of her death have not been shared yet. Officials said she was a resident of New Ashok Nagar in New Delhi but had been admitted here. A 41-year-old man, also suspected to have had Covid-19, died on Thursday. However, no details have been shared about him either.
Meanwhile, nine more Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Noida on Friday, taking the total to 387. These included two more patients related to the private news channel, whose chain now has 52 cases including employees and their relatives in Noida alone and others in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.