A private diagnostics laboratory in Woraiyur in Trichy was sealed by the Corporation authorities on Monday for allegedly giving out wrong COVID-19 test results and spreading panic. The Trichy City Corporation also imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on the lab.
According to reports, the Doctors Diagnostic Centre (DDC) was the first private lab in Trichy that was permitted to conduct COVID-19 tests. The lab had earlier received several complaints including uploading wrong test results on the website of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). In that instance, a person who was originally negative for coronavirus was declared coronavirus positive by the lab. The lab was also accused of allegedly delaying the test results of 29 persons who had COVID-19 for around 20 days.
In a statement, Trichy District Collector S Sivarasu said that action was initiated under various sections of the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939, including 59 (prohibition of other persons to exposure of infection), 62 (notified diseases) and 72 (forbidding work in infected premises).
An official from the Trichy City Corporation told the Times of India that a notice was sent to DDC lab 40 days ago but the lab had not taken any corrective measures, which prompted the authorities to take further action by sealing the premises.
Defending the lab, Dr PK Rath, the Managing Director of DDC, told TOI that the notice was issued to the lab only on July 25 and that they had stopped collecting samples for COVID-19 testing immediately. He also attributed the wrong uploading of COVID-19 test result to ‘typographical error’ and that it was corrected in a few days.
Regarding the alleged false positives reported out of his lab, which turned out to be negative in government labs, Rath said that improper collection of swab in government labs can change the result of the test.