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Delay in results makes it difficult to contain Covid in Bokaro

Bokaro: With Bokaro district dependent on Dhanbad’s Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) for its Covid-19 test, a delay in receiving the results is making it difficult for the administration to take timely action to contain the virus from spreading. The situation worsened after around 25,613 migrants returned to the district recently.



Until Saturday, the district saw 22 cases of Covid-19 with the first one being diagnosed as early as April 5. Of the total cases, the district recorded one death. Meanwhile, 14 persons have recovered, leaving seven active cases.

With an influx of migrants from all parts of the country, of the 25,613 who arrived here, 13,521 have been kept under home quarantine while 4,825, who came from red zones, have been housed at government quarantine centres.

“The district has 375 government quarantine centres, of which, 227 are active and until now, 1,685 samples have been sent for tests to PMCH, of which, 449 reports are still pending. Most of the pending reports are of samples drawn or sent to PMCH as early as May 18,” said Bokaro civil surgeon A K Pathak.

Though the district administration has strengthened all other fronts to contain the virus, a delay of close to 12 days is posing a challenge in containing the virus.

BJP’s Bokaro MLA Biranchi Narayan demanded the government to either ensure timely delivery of test reports or initiate facilities for Covid tests in the district. “I have requested state health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni to set up RT-PCR labs here as the number of Covid cases are rising,” Narayan said.

Though Truenat tests have begun at the saadar hospital, authorities have to depend on RT-PCR results for final confirmation of positive reports, which further delays the process. Meanwhile, technical errors arising out of overburden of samples at PMCH have also put authorities of the health department in a fix.

Recently, two persons from Bokaro were declared negative by PMCH, but after three days, the hospital tagged them Covid-19 positive. Interestingly, the second report was drafted after tests were run on the same samples that declared them negative, collected and sent nine days ago.

On May 14, a 43-year-old autorickshaw driver, who drove down with his daughter and two others from Mumbai and covered closely 1,800 km to reach Bokaro, was kept under 14-day home quarantine in Taranagar area of Chas. Before reaching Bokaro, he dropped the two persons at Hazaribag and continued towards his home. Samples were drawn from him on May 16 and the reports arrived after 12 days which declared him Covid positive.

After he tested positive, the man was picked up from his home and sent to the Covid ward of Bokaro General Hospital. His family members, comprising his wife and five daughters, have been sent to the district quarantine centre and their samples have been sent to PMCH for tests.

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