Days after testing positive for the coronavirus, Tollywood actor Chiranjeevi said that he subsequently tested negative in the multiple tests. Earlier on Sunday, Chiranjeevi took to Twitter to inform that he had tested positive for the virus following a test ahead of resuming the shooting for the movie Acharya, as part of the protocol. On Thursday, he informed that he took the tests again as he did not present any sort of symptoms of the infection and tested negative subsequently.
“A group of doctors did three different tests and concluded that I am COVID-19 test negative and that the earlier result was due to a faulty RT-PCR kit,” the actor tweeted with a note in Telugu and an attachment of his test report.
A group of doctors did three different tests and concluded that I am Covid negative & that the earlier result was due to a faulty RT PCR kit. My heartfelt thanks for the concern, love shown by all of you during this time. Humbled ! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/v8dwFvzznw
— Chiranjeevi Konidela (@KChiruTweets) November 12, 2020
"Time and corona have played with me from the last four days. After my samples tested positive on Sunday, I started medications. However, as I did not have any symptoms even two days later, I approached the doctors at the Apollo Hospital. After a CT scan, they said that there were no traces of the virus or any infection in my chest. To reconfirm, I took the test again using three types of kits,” Chiranjeevi said in the note.
The real-time reverse polymerase chain reaction test (RT-PCR) is believed to be the gold standard of COVID-19 diagnosis. However, there have been multiple cases of false positives or false negatives being thrown up due to many reasons. A false positive may occur due to cross-contamination of the testing sample. An RT-PCR test can also deliver a 'false positive' if dead fragments of the novel coronavirus are still present in the recovered patient, who is no longer believed to be infectious.
A person who has COVID-19 may end up testing negative if swab test isn't carried out properly or if the test is taken too early in the infection, say researchers.
Chiranjeevi, meanwhile, also thanked people who expressed concern when he was informed about his initial report, “My heartfelt thanks for the concern, love shown by all of you during this time. Humbled!” he tweeted.
Initially, there were concerns after he tested positive, as he had met with Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), along with other film fraternity members. He was seen without wearing a mask in the pictures.
Since his results have tested negative for coronavirus, actor Chiranjeevi is likely to join the shooting of Acharya.
Meanwhile, 1,000 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in Telangana on Thursday, while three more persons succumbed to the dissease. With 1,015 positive cases, the state's COVID-19 tally jumped to 2,54,666 while fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 1,393.