Tamil Nadu cancels Covid-19 testing permission to a private lab

Selvavinayagam issued a show-cause notice to Medall Laboratory asking the management to respond to the notice within three working days

Tamil Nadu government on Friday cancelled Covid-19 testing permission to a popular laboratory for severe discrepancies in reporting Covid-19 test results, including certifying around 4,000 samples that tested negative as positive cases in the ICMR portal.

Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (DPH) Dr T S Selvavinayagam issued a show-cause notice to Medall Healthcare asking the management to respond to the notice within three working days. He said permission to test RT-PCR samples for SARS CoV-2 (Covid-19) to the laboratory noted in despatch entry stands cancelled with immediate effect.

In the order, Selvavinayagam said the laboratory uploaded 4,000 samples received from Kolkata as those received from Kallakurichi in Tamil Nadu and registered as positive 4,000 samples that tested negative for Covid-19 on May 19, and May 20.

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Accusing the laboratory of functioning with “vested interest and negligent attitude”, the DPH said the act by Medall has created an unfavourable environment in the efforts against Covid-19.

“The uploading of positive results of samples received from outside Tamil Nadu in Tamil Nadu's account has led to undue increase in case load and positivity of Tamil Nadu. This has spoiled the sincere efforts taken by the state in dealing with Covid-19,” Selvavinayagam said in the order.

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He also said the government suspects “presence of due nexus” between the laboratory and hospitals. “The wrong reports may be used to invite patients to the hospitals and subsequently medical bills can be earned by the hospital,” the order said.

Dr Selvavinayagam said permission to the laboratory for testing RT-PCR samples will be decided after inspection by a Public Health team.

Medall Healthcare's response

In a statement, the laboratory said an encryption error that occurred while uploading to ICMR database was the reason for the discrepancy.

“Having said that, it must be brought to the attention that the RT-PCR testing process of Medall is not in question. It must be clarified and placed on record that the report generated and shared with the customers who took the test is accurate. So the issue is not with the testing process or its quality or its accuracy,” a statement from Medall Healthcare said.

The issue has been an encryption error (technical) that occurred while uploading the data to the ICMR server, the statement said, adding that the company will extend “unstinted co-operation” to the government team being sent.