Inside a private hospital at Gachibowli, the queue of people up for COVID-19 test snakes out of the entrance and goes on till the car parking lot. Dozens of suspected patients who reached before 9 a.m. are seated inside waiting for their turn.
It is a slow, laborious process where preliminary check-up, including vitals like oxygen saturation levels and blood pressure, takes most of the time. By 11 a.m., a supervisor tells a counter clerk “we will stop once we reach the 300 mark.” This limit of 300 holds the key to Telangana’s test statistics. The State now has 30 RT-PCR, 8 CBNAAT and one TrueNat testing facilities with 23 in government domain and 16 operated by private facilities. A two-page Indian Council of Medical Research referral form-44 makes a doctor’s prescription mandatory for the test. This has come as a welcome caveat for private institutions which are tagging doctor’s consultation fee even though no doctor attends/counsels the suspect.
The RT-PCR test, which is priced at ₹2,200, costs anywhere between ₹2,900 and 3500 in the city. The data for the RT-PCR where a bar code is generated for the test subject is centralised. Individuals testing positive get phone calls in the morning from healthcare workers enquiring about their well being and symptoms. The surrounding areas are sanitised using sodium hypochlorite. ASHA workers visit the patient’s home and hand over hydroxychloroquine tablets. They also get home isolation kits containing essential vitamins, masks, hand sanitiser, gloves etc.
According to multiple accounts, the call centre staffers are advising individuals in home quarantine that a second test to ensure COVID-19 negative status is unnecessary if they don’t develop symptoms within the 14-day period.
On the other hand, individuals testing positive using the rapid antigen test kits are being informed about their status personally and asked to stay in home quarantine. “I want to get tested again before I step out to feel safe and confident,” said a patient who tested positive in two successive tests a few days ago.
