DH Impact: BBMP issues show-cause notice against lab over Covid test mix-up

Following a DH news report about errors in Covid-19 testing reports, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has issued a show-cause notice against a private lab for entering incorrect patient details on the ICMR portal.

The issue came to light this week when a 31-year-old lawyer in the city started receiving a slew of Covid-19 test result reports for strangers who had recently been tested.

Her only connection to the random individuals was that she had taken a Covid-19 test in August, with the sample having subsequently been sent to the Strand Lab at HCG Hospital for testing. Her result had come back negative. Upon inquiries prompted by this newspaper, the BBMP discovered that the test reports of at least eight people (including one positive case) who had also been tested by Strand Labs on August 6 and 7 alone had been linked to the mobile phone number used by the lawyer.

The mix-up means that at least two positive cases could not be contacted by the BBMP to be informed about their positive status. The BBMP also could not carry out containment measures for these two cases.

Read | One number used to register 12 random people for Covid test

The BBMP Special Commissioner (Health), R Randeep, who issued the show-cause letter to Strand Labs on Thursday, explained that even though the eight subjects noted in the letter had registered for RT-PCR tests using their own phone numbers, the lab erred by entering their results into the ICMR portal using the lawyer’s number.

"Your lab is entering wrong patient details into ICMR resulting in difficulty in patient tracking, tracing and control activities,” the letter reads.

As per data received by DH, the number of people subject to incorrect patient details entered on the ICMR portal by the lab had reached 14 by Thursday evening.

The lab is obligated to explain itself to the chief health officer within 48 hours of the receipt of the letter. "If no explanations are provided, then we shall refer the issue to the ICMR for revoking of approval and take action as per section 4 of the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Ordinance 2020, plus the KMPE Act and the Disaster Management Act," Randeep said.