EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 10: Alleging mismatching of COVID-19 test reports, United Democratic Alliance (UDA) said that several families and individuals cite immense trauma after their COVID-19 samples’ tests threw up contradictory results in government and private labs.
As testing of people for COVID-19 picks up amid a slew of new cases, an alarming new trend has cropped up, chief spokesperson of UDA, Rajiv Mahajan said adding that several incidents of contrasting swab test results shown by government and private labs have been reported in Jammu, putting the individuals involved and their kin through huge mental trauma.
“One of the family members in Jammu was left confounded after his swab test came in positive for COVID-19 from the government lab but a private lab deemed the result as negative just a day later,” Rajiv said.
He added, “With two conflicting tests over a span of 24 hours, this family—and others like it — are unclear whether their dear ones are afflicted by coronavirus or not.”
“The patients subjected to these contradictory reports are now in self-isolation, but their relatives remain worried that others may be at the receiving end of the infection soon,” he said.
“Our suspicions were justified.
How can two samples of the same person taken within 24 hours have such contrasting results? But this only added to the confusion,” he said.
“The mental stress and trauma from positive reports is tremendous. Even the children were shocked. Fortunately now, only one of the family members tested positive. Such news also spreads like wildfire in society and damages families in many ways,” he lamented.
He stated that the methods adopted by the government like antigen testing is putting peoples’ lives seriously in danger.
“The facts that Rapid Antigen Test are much less reliable in nature and cannot be trusted for its accuracy. The government however in making the Rapid Antigen Testing surge while throwing more reliable and accurate testing like RT PCR in the back burner. It is putting people’s lives grievously at risk,” he said.
He also alleged mismanagement in quarantine centres in Jammu division where lives of many people who are staying there on risk.
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