Telangana tops Covid-19 test positivity rate in June, blames private labs

NEW DELHI: The Telangana government has blamed private laboratories for the state’s high Covid-19 test positivity rate, saying problems with the way tests were conducted and samples stored have led to discrepancies in data uploaded on state and Indian Council of Medical Research portals.

Telangana had the highest test positivity rate in the country this month which ranged between 20% and 32% in the period June17-23.

“Our teams have found that private labs are not following the set protocols,” Telangana chief secretary Somesh Kumar said on Monday. “Some faults were found in collection and storing of samples. We are sorting it out. We have served notices to them. They have been given time to rectify the issues.”

He, however, emphasised that there was no need to panic and Telangana had enough testing facilities.

Four teams had inspected laboratories on June 24 to conduct detailed checks. An expert committee then prepared a report based on their findings.

“Quality controls are not being followed by the laboratories… It is suspected that there is a high possibility of contamination of samples, leading to high positivity rate because safety measures and protocols are not followed meticulously,” the expert panel said in its report submitted to the government on Friday.

It also submitted that it suspected private laboratories of conducting pooled tests where certain negative tests were also being shown as positive leading to a high positivity rate.

Telangana has been on collision course with private laboratories since the beginning of Covid-19 outbreak in the country. Though ICMR had allowed private laboratories to conduct RT-PCR diagnostic test for Covid-19, the state did not give permission. The matter was finally settled this month by the Telangana High Court which ruled that ICMR-recognised private laboratories should be allowed to conduct the test.

The state health department said the positivity rate was high as the total number of tests being conducted were not uploaded properly. There were vast discrepancies in the number uploaded on ICMR portal and state government’s portal, it said.

“It was observed that certain labs are not following standard operating procedures (SOPs),” the department said in a bulletin on Saturday. “There have been discrepancies in data pertaining to the number of tests conducted, positives reported and portal updation. The quality of testing has also been compromised. Some labs are reporting close to 70% positivity rate which clearly denotes huge errors in the testing methodology,” it said.