On Thursday, the health department issued show-cause notices to 9 private laboratories in the Gurugram for incorrect and duplicate entries of addresses of COVID patients on the ICMR portal. The laboratories are asked to answer within 48 hours or else legal action should be taken against them for not following the protocol.

The nine laboratories are SRL, Pathkind, Max, Modern diagnostics, Dr Lal Pathlabs, Core diagnostics, Molecule Lab, Metropolis healthcare and Apex Diagnostics. As per the health department, 43 people who had given their samples in private laboratories couldn’t be traced because their records were incomplete.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer of Gurugram said that the labs have entered wrong addresses for fewCOVID patients. Even though the patients were from Delhi, they were mentioned as Gurugram residents in the portal and accounts of a violation of ICMR guidelines. If they fail to answer or repeat the violations then strict action will be taken against them. He further said that in one of the laboratories, patients were tested several times while the rule is to not test before 17 days for patients in home isolation.

The health department also highlighted that giving wrong information can delay the contact tracing process. The current situation in the city is a big concern for the healthcare authorities, as Gurugram is observing anupsurge and without proper contact tracing, it will be difficult to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The health department had sent notices last week to seven laboratories for not providing complete address and contact number or any identity proof of COVID-19 patients.

Source: ET Healthworld