Uttar Pradesh: Waiting period for Corona test report goes up to two days now

LUCKNOW: The waiting time for the Covid-19 test report has doubled from 24 hours to 48 hours due to the huge rush of people getting themselves tested following the surge in cases.
At present, 15,000-16,000 samples are being sent to King George’s Medical University (KGMU) daily and 7,000 to 8,000 are going to Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS) from across the state.Earlier, it was 5,000-8,000 for KGMU and 3,000-4,000 for RMLIMS per day.
Similarly, the load on other labs has also increased over the past week.
The delay is causing inconvenience to patients who are going to hospital for the treatment of some other disease. Their family members are also being affected.
“My brother has to be admitted to RMLIMS for treatment of a neurological disorder, for which he and all family members were asked to get tested for Covid-19. We gave samples on Sunday afternoon, but have not received reports till now,” said Suresh Khanna from Takrohi.
Similarly, Kriti (26) from Aashiana, who has to consult doctors for gastroenteritis, gave her sample on Sunday, but did not get the report till Tuesday evening.
Indiranagar resident Manish Kumar, 37, who visited the OPD of Balrampur hospital on Saturday said, “Since I had fever and weakness, doctors after prescribing drugs advised me to get tested through RT PCR method. The portal shows my test report status as ‘waiting’. Even after three days, I am not sure whether I have Covid-19 or not.”
When asked about delay in getting reports, officials of Balrampur, Civil and Lokbandhu hospitals said they are sending samples to KGMU. Therefore, they are not able to tell the reason behind the delay.
KGMU spokesperson Dr Sudhir Singh accepted that there is a delay in results but only in exceptional cases.
“Sometimes results come as equivocal—it can’t be explained as positive or negative. In these cases, we have to retest the sample so results come late,” he explained.
Spokesperson of RMLIMS Nimisha Sonkar denied any delay. She said, “Though the sample load has increased, we can give results in 24 hours.”