SHILLONG: There was utter confusion over the reported infection of a doctor of Nazareth Hospital here, as his perplexing test reports were both positive and negative!
DHS (MI) Dr Aman War on Saturday was at pains to offer an explanation. He said that the concerned doctor was first tested positive by the RT-PCR test in NEIGRIHMS while he was later tested negative during the test conducted by the GeneXpert or CB-NAAT machine. “This doctor who came into contact with a patient who suffered major head injuries and was later referred to NEIGRIHMS. The hospitals wanted that an RTCPR test should be done on this doctor.
At the same time, the hospital authorities also conducted a test by the CB-NAAT machine, war said.
According to War, there were two reports of this doctor from Nazareth Hospital but the hospital wants to stick with the report of the test conducted by the CB-NAAT machine,” Dr War told reporters.
He stated that it is for this reason that Nazareth Hospital is saying that there is no positive cases.
He however said that he has studied the case of this doctor in details adding that the people who came into contact with him are in no danger. “The hospital is still doing the contract tracing of this doctor. We will know on the contacts of this doctor once the contact tracing is completed,” he said.
When asked on the reason that the number of returnees are still increasing despite the decision of the State to close down the entry and exit point from July 24, he said that the government cannot prevent the armed forces to return to the state
When asked if the state is any where closer of achieving herd immunity, he said that it is achieved when around 70 per cent of the population is affected whereas in Meghalaya till date, not even 1 per cent of the population has been affected with COVID.
He also informed that there are two critical cases in the state right now.
