Haryana orders probe after four samples reported COVID-19 positive by pvt lab test negative

The Haryana government on Monday ordered a probe after four samples reported positive for coronavirus by a private laboratory tested negative in confirmation tests done at the government centres.

No samples will be given for testing to the private lab, pending outcome of the probe, Health Minister Anil Vij said.

Vij said an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), who worked in a containment zone in Ambala, had tested positive for the infection on Saturday. Three other people too, all members of a family from Sahjadpur village near Ambala city, had also tested positive on Sunday. The samples of all the four were sent to the private laboratory for testing, he said.

"However, subsequently two more samples of the ANM were sent for confirmation to Kalpana Chawla Medical College at Karnal and Bhagat Phool Singh Medical College at Khanpur in Sonipat and their report came negative on Monday, said Vij.

Her sample had been tested by the private laboratory, he said.

Likewise, in Shezadpur, three people had been declared positive by this laboratory. When we sent their samples to the medical college at Khanpur, they tested negative, he said.

Vij said he has asked the health department to bar sending any more samples for tests to the laboratory, even though it had earlier been given due permission by the government to conduct the tests, and get entire matter inquired into and if a case is made out against them, then that be registered too.

I have directed the Additional Chief Secretary-Health for the probe into the matter. I have also asked him that that tests of all the people conducted by the laboratory in the state so far should be got conducted again from government labs, he said.

The manner in which tests are being conducted by this laboratory has raised suspicion. If you take the example of these four patients in Ambala district, based on the earlier test report from this private lab, we sealed particular area and quarantined their contacts as well, he said.