Unable to cope with ever increasing pressure of testing coronavirus samples, the authorities in the port city Chattogram have decided to restrict the daily lab testing operations.
A committee has been formed to recommend immediate future operations of how to manage and perform the corona testing in the long run.
However, officials said that a decision has been taken to allow single testing per person and screen out patients based on their symptoms so that doctors can advise on who needs priority testing and who needs to wait.
Such practice, experts believe, would greatly reduce unnecessary corona testing and also save time and strengthen efficiency of the existing laboratories.
Sheikh Fazlul Karim, Civil Surgeon of Chattogram district said that they are finding it extremely difficult to cope with the rising demands for corona testing and so the health department decided to restrict testing in all five laboratories where about 1500 samples are tested everyday in Chattogram.
Sheik Fazlul Karim, said, “A four-member committee has been formed to manage the sample testing situation. Currently the samples we collect and test actually exceeds our capacity. We now plan to limit this to testing 1000 samples on average per day.”
He also mentioned that only suspected patients with confirmed symptoms would get chance to test only once on a priority basis.
Explaining the decision, Sheik Fazlul Karim said, “A COVID- 19 patient need not test for a second time, as the disease is now identified on symptom basis. After testing one can get proper treatment as he or she may show symptoms. After completing treatment, the patient would be sent back to home in isolation for 15 days.”
Although there were opportunities to test samples in five labs in Chattogram and Cox's Bazar, samples were collected in at least 15 booths. Various agencies collect their samples and send them for testing.
This is creating extreme pressure. At present about 5,000 samples are waiting for lab examinations. More than 2,000 samples were sent to Dhaka for testing to reduce backlog, but the situation did not improve.
The largest lab in Chattogram region is at Chattogram University (CU) where on average about 500 samples can be tested daily. But less than two hundred samples were tested there in the past few weeks, which is seen by the experts of the university as mismanagement.
On Monday, the day when the highest number of 348 corona positives were detected in Chattogram, 167 samples were tested in the laboratory of CU, out of which 56 tested positive for coronavirus.
Though there are more government and non-government initiatives including sample collection booths, isolation centers to control the epidemic, the suffering of the 200 to 250 patients being identified in Chattogang every day is not decreasing.
Two private hospitals have, in the meantime, started full-fledged coronavirus testing and treatment, another private hospital is preparing for similar functions.