By Nayak Paudel
Morang, Oct. 22:It has been five days that the swab of 164 individuals were collected from Pathari Shanishchare Municipality and taken to Biratnagar-based Koshi Hospital for COVID-19 for Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test. However, the individuals haven’t received their report yet as their samples still remain to be tested.
The delay has affected the individual’s daily lives and increased the chance of further COVID-19 transmission among others.
Laxmi (name changed) is one of the 164 individuals whose swab was collected on Saturday. She has been isolating herself since Saturday but the delay in receiving the PCR report has created a great barrier for her.
“I have two sons who are not even 10 years old. They try coming near to me but I maintain the distance and stop them. I had my swab collected for testing but it has been five days today and I haven’t received my report yet,” said Laxmi, a resident from Ward 9 of Pathari Shanishchare Municipality.
As per Laxmi, she is going through a great stress due to the delay because she has not been able to be sure if she is infected with COVID-19 or not.
“I am isolating myself but since I don’t know if I am infected or not there are many questions running in my mind. The delay has done nothing other than increasing stress and causing anxiety,” Laxmi told The Rising Nepal. Laxmi had gone for swab collection since her office colleague had tested positive for COVID-19. The colleague had his report arrived only after a week of swab collection. The delay in the report of the colleague had resulted to infection transmission in a total of six member of his family.
Like Laxmi, the individuals awaiting result of the PCR test are in dilemma and an unknown stage of what they should do and what not. Health experts however suggest such individuals to remain isolated until report arrives even when the authorities are unable to provide report at the earliest.
According to the officials at the municipality, the delay was due to a pile of swab remaining to be tested at the hospital’s lab.
“When the hospital official came for swab collection, they stated that they had around 1,500 other samples in stock remaining to be tested. When we reach them, they say the samples from the municipality will be tested when its turn arrives. It may arrive soon now,” said Dilip Kumar Rai, mayor at Pathari Shanishchare Municipality.
Rai also added that the delay shows the poor condition for COVID-19 response outside the Valley which still remains unknown to the centre and similarly unaddressed even by the federal government.
As per the COVID-19 report of Tuesday, only a total of 190 samples were tested in the last 24 hours among which 73 were tested positive at Koshi Hospital.
Koshi Hospital is one of the four government laboratories testing COVID-19 in State 1 alongside B.P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, State’s public health laboratory and Mechi Hospital. Nobel Hospital, a private health institution in Biratnagar, also conducts tests for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the Koshi Hospital officials revealed that they face difficulties in testing due to lack of enough reagents and the case was similar in the recent delays. However, they stated that the reason for delay was being eradicated.
“We had problems due to few reagents for testing. But now we have upgraded our testing systems and will conduct more tests now onward. We have around 900 samples remaining for tests until Wednesday afternoon,” said Dr Laxmi Narayan Yadav, spokesperson at Koshi Hospital.