DAYS AHEAD of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha finances session that begins Monday, state Cabinet Minister for Jails and Cooperation Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa (62) was declared Covid-positive by a authorities testing laboratory whereas two subsequent checks — one at a personal lab and one other at PGIMER Chandigarh — declared him unfavourable, all inside a span of three days.
Randhawa, who had given his first pattern on February 25 at MLA Hostel, Chandigarh, as a part of necessary testing for MLAs forward of the Vidhan Sabha session, was declared Covid-positive as per take a look at outcomes obtained from the federal government laboratory at Punjab Biotechnology Incubator, Mohali, on February 26.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Randhawa mentioned he was shocked to see his ‘positive’ take a look at report, following which he once more obtained himself examined from a personal lab — Atulaya Healthcare Private Limited, Chandigarh — on February 27. The take a look at report, obtained the identical day, was ‘negative’.
Randhawa mentioned he was extraordinarily shocked by the “contradictory results” from the federal government and personal laboratories. Hence, to substantiate his Covid standing, he went for one remaining take a look at. On the identical day (February 27), he gave his pattern for RT-PCR take a look at at PGIMER Chandigarh. The end result from PGIMER obtained on Sunday declared him ‘negative’.
Interestingly, Randhawa had examined optimistic for Covid-19 in August final yr. “I was more shocked to see my ‘positive’ result because I had tested positive five months back and it was nearly impossible to test ‘positive’ again in such a short span of time as I must have developed antibodies. I sent all three reports to my Cabinet colleague Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu and asked what was happening. He too was shocked,” mentioned Randhawa.
The minister mentioned his docs had additionally mentioned that it was not attainable to check optimistic once more so quickly. “It was on the insistence of my doctors that I decided to get tested again,” he added.
He additionally requested why the ‘positive’ take a look at report he obtained from the federal government lab was “handwritten” in entrance of his title, whereas the outcomes of others on the checklist had been “typed”. “Ehdi ni samajh aayi…(I did not get this),” he mentioned.
Calling it a “serious lapse” on the a part of the federal government testing lab, Randhawa mentioned that whereas he did take up the matter with the well being minister, he didn’t focus on it together with his O P Soni, minister of medical training and analysis, below whose division Covid testing is carried out.
“I don’t know how it all happened. It has been a complete mess. I never had any symptoms. Just five months back, I had tested positive and I have no health issue. I got tested only because I had to attend Vidhan Sabha session. It is a very serious lapse…There are so many side effects of the medicines that you take for Covid-19…,” mentioned Randhawa.
“Since this morning it has been a big issue. Why have his (Soni’s) department officials not informed him yet? He must know how such a big lapse happened…I spoke to Sidhu not Soni. It is his department (Soni’s) and he should have contacted me after this goof-up, not vice-versa,” mentioned Randhawa.
‘Checking for lapses’
D Okay Tiwari, principal secretary, medical training and analysis, mentioned they had been checking if there was any lapse in testing on the authorities laboratory. Speaking to The Indian Express, Tiwari mentioned, “Randhawa’s sample was tested with all other samples (taken from MLA Hostel) at Punjab Biotechnology Incubator Laboratory and the result was ‘positive’. It is possible to test negative in the next 1-2 days if a person is on the path to recovery and the viral load is very low. There is something called ‘CT value’ and if it is high, it means viral load was low and vice-versa. In Randhawa’s case, it was very high, which means his viral load was very low. But still, to ensure that there is no lapse in the government lab’s testing system, we are rechecking the entire chain of his sample’s testing…It is being checked if there was any lapse on our part…”
Asked about Randhawa’s ‘positive’ end result being ‘handwritten’, Tiwari mentioned, “In fact it is a thing of appreciation that instead of typing it in a hurry without cross-checking, the result was carefully handwritten after proper verification…”
Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu mentioned that whereas his division solely collects the samples, testing is taken care of by his colleague O P Soni’s division.
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When contacted, Soni mentioned, “I was not aware of this. Randhawa did not discuss it with me…”
