Residents of a village near Ayyampettai in Thanjavur district have expressed disillusionment over the methodology of determination of COVID-19 infection by mobile testing teams.
A middle-aged woman claimed she was asked to remain in home quarantine though her swab sample was not taken for testing. She said a mobile COVID-19 swab sample collection team had indeed intercepted her and her son at Thiruvaiyaru on April 19 while they were on their way back after a medical consultation at Thiruvaiyaru.
The mobile team, she said, allowed them to proceed after collecting details such as the name, address and contact number from her. Subsequently, the woman had received a message saying she had tested positive for novel coronavirus. A team of police personnel appeared at her doorsteps to advise her to remain in home quarantine.
The officials refused to believe that no sample had been taken for testing and left the place. The woman said she subsequently got herself tested at the Thanjavur Medical College hospital on April 22. On April 24, she received a message stating she was not infected by the virus.
“I brought this to the notice of the local body but was asked not to make any issue and remain isolated from others for the stipulated period of 14 days at home,” she said adding that the local body had warned that failure to do so would lead to her confinement in COVID care centre at Vallam near Thanjavur.
A bank staff hailing from her village had an unsavoury experience recently. He volunteered for the novel coronavirus test at a government-run testing unit after his institution directed him to undergo the test since his presence was required at a meeting of the institution at Karaikal on a later date.
The banker who was also not suffering from any symptoms of COVID-19 viral infection received the message that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Intrigued by the test result, he preferred to get himself tested at a private testing lab and received a negative report.
When this issue was brought to the notice of the doctors involved in the ‘war against COVID-19,’ they said that the possibilities of a person testing positive for the virus turning negative within two days was no surprise as most of the persons undergoing the test currently were asymptomatic.
A senior Health Department official said that the chances of the virus spreading to others from the asymptomatic persons cannot be ruled out completely. At the same time, asymptomatic persons do not require urgent medical attention and could quarantine themselves at home. They need to remain in self-isolation for a minimum of two weeks to avoid spread of the virus infection.
