By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 25: Star Hospital Tuesday said the hospital’s lab had not given false RT-PCR reports to people visiting the hospital for tests.
Organising a press conference this afternoon, the Hospital said the suspicions raised in the test report of the three persons from its lab were baseless.
Of the nine passengers flown to Hong Kong from Nepal via Nepal Airlines, three had their PCR test at Star Hospital.
“Test of three passengers done at our labs before their flight had come negative,” said Shail Rupakheti, the hospital’s medical director. “When retested again in Hong Kong the report came positive,” he said and this might happen during their flight hour.
He added that the coronavirus infection may have occurred during the post-test journey, which is not the weakness of the lab.
Rupakheti claimed that even the Ministry of Health during their re-verification of the collected details could not find any mistake in the lab.
“Since the PCR report cannot itself be 100 per cent accurate, as its report worldwide appears to be only 67-70 per cent accurate, the fact that a person is in a transition stage when giving a swab cannot be denied,” said Rupakheti.
There was no truth in such information that came before the investigation committee.
The Ministry of Tourism had written a letter to the Ministry of Health on November 12 saying that the people who had negative PCR reports from some labs came positive after they landed in Hong Kong.
Due to the report, the NACs flight from Kathmandu to Hong Kong has been suspended until November 25.
At the press conference, Rupakheti said that there would be re-examination when going abroad from Nepal but why the PCR test was not mandatory at the airport when coming to Nepal from abroad?
He expressed dissatisfaction over the working style of the government.
“However, the rumors that have been reported without taking a swab are baseless. The history of our lab shows that we have not done anything wrong so far,” he said.
The government launched an investigation after questions were raised about the credibility of the PCR report.
The hospital claims that the test of Star’s lab was not found to be wrong during the investigation.