SHILLONG: The rapid antigen tests being conducted in the city, where the positive COVID-19 cases are spiralling, appears to have certain loopholes which could prove counter-productive.
There have been some alleged instances when people after the test were sent back home, but the results later showed them as positive cases.
Former Home Minister RG Lyngdoh too, said that though the government is trying its best to fight the pandemic there are some gaps which need to be plugged immediately
He said that there have been some instances when people were sent home after the tests and they later turned out to be positive cases. The concern here, he said, is how many people they might have contacted in the interregnum.
Michael Kharsyntiew, a Congress worker in Mawprem, alleged that on Friday, one person who had tested positive in random testing in Motphran was sent back home by the authorities to collect his clothes.
“Why should a positive patient be allowed to go back home after testing positive?” he asked.
Similar concern was expressed by a social activist who said, “What is the use of random testing in public places and markets when like yesterday, while waiting for the results to come out, one person was allowed to go home only to be told he was COVID-positive after some time over phone and then picked up while on his way home, but after he had completed marketing, hurriedly by an ambulance and taken to the corona care centre at Umsawli”.
Even on the first day of the random sampling in Police Bazar, it was seen that people, who underwent the rapid antigen test, were asked to wait for five minutes after their test and if the health workers did not say anything to them it would mean the results were negative and they could go back, but if they tested positive they would be asked to stay back. Some were also told that their results would be messaged to them.
However, in Motphran testing centre, many people who tested negative were given certificates.
When asked, DHS (MI) Dr Aman War said many of the people who gave their samples in the random testing could not wait for their results and went home and complained later.