COVID-19: MP’s Spike in Cases Down to Backlog in Testing?

Bhopal: Dozens of medical staffers of the Jai Prakash Hospital in Bhopal protested outside the office of the district’s Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) on Monday, demanding protective gear and the release of their COVID-19 test reports.

They alleged that their test results have been pending for more than a week. More than 300 samples had been collected after a doctor, two nurses and a sanitation employee tested positive for COVID-19 at the hospital about two weeks ago. The JP Hospital has 450 employees.

Ironically, the hospital is a screening centre itself, and handles most of the test samples from Bhopal, which is Madhya Pradesh's second-most affected city after Indore, with 458 cases.

The hospital employees claimed that those that had tested positive may have unwittingly infected them, and they may have subsequently infected others. MP Health and Medical Employees’ Association president Surendra Singh Kourav said that they do not know if they are “infected or not. The danger is that most of us are still working, and if we are COVID-19 positive, we could be infecting others,” he added, mentioning that they were in desperate need for PPE kits since they had been “using masks made out of cloth at work.”

Similarly, in Burhanpur district, about 400 kms from the state capital, the test reports of eight patients, which had been sent to Indore on April 12, are still pending.

“I have informed higher authorities of Health Department including the District Collector Rajesh Koul, CMHO Indore, about the delay, but in vain,” said Dr. Ravindra Rajput, the Chief of COVID-19 Rapid Response Team in Burhanpur.

After 17 days of quarantine, the patients have been demanding for their reports. The district has one case of COVID-19, Rajput added.

And it is not just the above cases. The test samples of more than 8,439 people are pending, a number which was 4,500 a week ago, according to the State Health Department’s April 26 bulletin. The state has seen a massive spike in patients over the last two weeks.

Backlog in cases the reason behind spike?

The state health bulletin revealed that 38,708 tests had been conducted so far in Madhya Pradesh. Of them, 28,179 samples tested negative while 2,090 samples tested positive with the remaining samples pending. The Health Department is collecting between 1600 and 1,800 samples everyday.

To clear the backlog, the state has been sending samples to the National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi and Puducherry laboratory. However, that seems ineffective as well as pending cases are piling up with each passing day.

After news of the double-fold jump in pending cases was reported in the local media, the department stopped sharing the data.

“The state government is manipulating the data after criticism from the media over the backlog in cases. Since the last two days, the Health Department has stopped sharing two major data sets – the total pending cases and total collected samples in a day, to avoid further criticism,” said Amulya Nidhi of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan.

“After analysing the data and reports, it seems that the state is taking an average of 6 to 8 days to get the test results for a common patient while VIP patients and Health Department officials are getting their results in just 24 hours,” alleged Nidhi.

At present, the state has 11 laboratories which have been testing for COVID-19. About 2,050 samples can be tested in Madhya Pradesh per day and by next week, testing capacity is expected to be increased by 350 samples per day as three more laboratories would be added to the list, taking the total number of authorised test labs in the state to 14.

“MP laboratories are testing at full capacity. Around 2,000 samples are pending at NCDC Delhi and around 900 in the a Puducherry laboratory. We are following up with the two laboratories,” said Nishant Warwade , Commissioner of Directorate of Medical Education (DME).

‘State Government hiding data’

The health bulletin from April 27 said that till 23,500 people had tested negative for COVID-19 while 2,156 persons had tested positive – the corresponding numbers were 28,179 (negative) and 2,090 (positive) in the April 26 bulletin. Besides, the bulletin has no mention of the total collected samples and total pending cases.

Comparison of State Health Bulletin data

“The data clearly shows how the state government is manipulating with the COVID-19 figures. The total number of negative cases, which were 28,179 on April 26, declined to 23, 500 on April 27. Instead of rising, the numbers are declining. How this could be possible?” asked S.R. Azad, health expert and member of the Jan Swasthya Abiyan.

“If the Health Department is collecting 1600 to 1800 samples each day, then the final figure may have crossed 42,000 in the last two days and pending cases could have also crossed 9,500. But the State government is hiding the data,” Azad alleged.

On April 22, members of the Central monitoring committee were in Indore to assess the situation. Shankar Lalwani, the BJP MP from Indore also said that the government was hiding data. “The administration should not hide the COVID-19 data and give reports promptly. Manipulating with the figures and subsequent delays may cause a spike in cases,” Lalwani told the committee.

Shortage of PPE and RNA kits

Aside from the confusion over pending reports, there is a shortage of RNA extraction kits and PPE kits in the State. Just like J.P. Hospital staffers who were demanding protective gear and PPE kits for themselves, hundreds of medical staffers and cops have been working without proper safety measures and falling ill as a result.

RNA kits are in short supply in laboratories across the state. S. Dhanaraju, officer on special duty at Madhya Pradesh Public Health Services Corporation Limited, said: “As of now, just 6,000 RNA extraction kits are available.”

After media reports, the state Health Department revealed that around 10,000 PPE kits are required in the state on a daily basis while 12,000 kits are being manufactured every day.
Kumar Purushottam, Managing Director of the State Industrial Development Centre, clarified that 1.5 lakh kits have been manufactured and supplied so far. Of these, about 75,000 kits each have been sent to Indore and Bhopal.

“Pending cases, lack of PPE kits and the hiding of data has made Madhya Pradesh a hot spot of COVID-19. The government should reveal the actual data, clear the backlog of cases by acquiring private labs and hospitals and provide PPE kits to the front-line worriers of COVID-19 who are falling prey to the pandemic,” advised Azad.