Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Health Minister Narottam Mishra claimed that from now on, the COVID-19 test report will be received on a daily basis as the state ended the backlog of old samples.
However, there is no mention of over 8,000 pending samples after April 26 in records of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP)--part of the Health Department.
In a communique issued by MP Publicity Department, Mishra said that till now the test reports were delayed due to shortage of test kits and a backlog of old samples. “Now the backlog has ended and test reports would be received daily,” he added.
The government’s move will ensure that patients get speedy treatment and recover quickly. Earlier, Mishra had claimed that the Centre is offering 12 machines for tests and affirmed that erroneous Chinese test kits had also hindered the testing speed in Madhya Pradesh and piled up old samples.
Meanwhile, the daily bulletins issued by Dept of Health and Family Welfare (IDSP wing) since April 27 has discontinued mentioning the details of pending corona samples. On April 26, the Dept of Health had issued two reports, first which mentioned that as of April 26, the numbers of pending samples were 8,349 but later a revised bulletin was issued which skipped the details of pending samples.
Simultaneously, the Health bulletin does not mention total collected samples and simply states the total reports received in cumulative manner.
Volunteer organisation Jan Swasthya Abhiyan has flagged anomalies in data compilation by the Dept of Health of the state. “Clarity is lacking in testing in the state. The Health bulletin as on April 30 mentioned total test reports as 41,712 while 2,625 tested positive- 29,816 tested negative but there was no clarity on the remaining 9271 test reports,” Amulya Nidhi, senior volunteer of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan said.
He added that large numbers of samples also were rejected due to faulty test kits but there is no mention of them in the daily Health bulletin.
When News 18 contacted Health Commissioner Faiz Ahmed Kidwai about testing and new machines, the officer claimed that Commissioner, Medical Education, Nishant Warwade was in charge of these affairs. However, Warwade could not be reached for comments on the matter.
“We avoided these figures to ensure no dispute arose on data and these figures would be sorted out in the next few days,” said Sapna Lovanshi, Addl Director (Health) who is the Executive Officer Ayushman Bharat (MP).
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