Ongole: Man, son get results without giving samples

Ongole: The instances of people who didn't give samples for Covid-19 tests receiving results and discharge of positive patients with just one-day stay at hospital after issuing negative certificates are causing serious concern among people.

Two persons, a father and son, were surprised to receive text message to their mobile number on July 25, that the result of the Covid-19 test conducted at the VRDL Lab at GMC Guntur was negative for their samples. The message provided a link to download the test result from the website of the department of health, Government of Andhra Pradesh. The ICMR Specimen Referral Form for Covid-19 downloaded from the website says that the sample is collected at Government General Hospital in Ongole. But actually, the father lives in Tenali in Guntur district and the son in Ongole due to his profession, and they didn't give any samples in Guntur or Prakasam districts in recent times.

In another incident, a person working as an attender in the district panchayat office at the collectorate is declared to be a Covid-19 positive on July 22. His sample was collected a few days earlier and he was put in hospital isolation. But on July 23, he was discharged on, with a discharge summary that he was in strict hospital isolation and his sample was collected on the seventh day which tested negative. GGH Ongole superintendent Dr Diguvinti Sriramulu and Covid-19 district coordinator Dr John Richards signed the document to confirm that there is a difference of seven days between the days receiving the positive and negative results.

On GGH Ongole and VRDL Lab at GMC Guntur issuing negative results to the samples that were not given by the people, The Hans India made several attempts to approach the superintendent of GGH Ongole and Covid-19 district coordinator to know how many cases of Covid-19 negative or positive results issued like this even by mistake but they didn't respond. Attempts to contact VRDL Lab at GMC Guntur to check whether they really received samples in the name of the father and son have also failed.

There is no response from the officials despite repeated attempts by this newspaper on discharge of a patient with negative report just one day stay.