India News | Ensure Labs Don't Have Pending Samples Before Giving Them More to Test: Delhi CM to DMs

New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday instructed district magistrates to check whether or not a laboratory has any pending samples before giving them more to test, in order to prevent any delay in test reports.

He cautioned that a serious patient could lose his life if it takes three days for the results after sample collection for COVID-19 testing.

"You are playing with their life. Strict action would be taken against such labs that collect more samples than their actual capacity and do not provide the report within 24 hours," he said.

Amid escalating cases of COVID-19, Kejriwal said the pandemic situation in the city has become "very serious and worrisome", with oxygen stock, remdesivir and tocilizumab drugs for patients in short supply.

The number of COVID-19 cases are rising rapidly with around 24,000 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours, Kejriwal said in an online media briefing.

This is the highest single-day surge in the national capital till date. A day before, 19,486 COVID-19 cases and 141 deaths were reported.

"All DMs have also been instructed that before giving samples to any lab, they must check whether these labs have any pending samples or not. Such labs that do not provide reports within 24 hours must not be given the samples," he added.

He said that some labs in the city have been taking more samples than their capacity, because of which results are getting delayed by three-four days.

"From the past few days, it has been noticed that results are taking 3-4 days. The reason behind this is that some labs have started taking up more samples than their actual capacity. For instance, if their capacity is 5,000 tests per day, they are collecting approximately 10,000-15,000 samples, and then take 3-4 days to provide the result," Kejriwal said.

He added that strict action would be taken against labs that do not provide the report within 24 hours.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)