Weeks after allegedly being constrained by the administration, private diagnostic laboratories in Uttar Pradesh have once again begun conducting Covid-19 tests at full capacity and with no restraints.
A few weeks ago, when the daily count of Covid-19 cases in the state had surpassed 30,000, several private pathology laboratories reportedly began receiving calls from the administration asking them to reduce the number of Covid tests they were conducting. They were asked to restrict home collection of samples and to conduct less RT-PCR tests of people who came to the labs for testing.
Due to this pressure, many popular path labs stopped conducting tests to the dismay of the citizens.
Administration’s ‘unofficial’ orders
Some laboratories continued to send their lab technicians for home collection of samples unofficially, despite the administration’s ‘unofficial’ order.
A sample collector from a famous private diagnostic laboratory, on the condition of anonymity, told India Today, “We were restricted from collecting samples. Despite getting plenty of calls from citizens, we were urged not to conduct many tests.”
“During that time, the government was overloaded with a large number of samples. We were told that they were not being able to give test results on time due to over-testing by private pathologies,” he added.
Govt hiding real case tally?
Another lab technician, on the condition of anonymity, told India Today that all this was done to hide the spike in Covid cases in the state.
“No other logic makes sense – this was the only reason. We did many tests in our personal capacity, despite being given a red signal from the administration,” he stated.
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Although Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recommended more testing time and again in his public addresses, the labs were simultaneously receiving ‘unofficial’ orders from the administration to curtail the number of tests they were conducting. This had left them confused.
During that time, some laboratories stopped home collection but went ahead with testing at their centres. Now, labs such as Dr Lal PathLabs and SRL Diagnostics have re-started home collection of samples too.
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