The Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has cancelled the permission granted to a private laboratory to test RT-PCR samples for COVID-19 after spotting discrepancies, including uploading of negative results as positive for nearly 4,000 samples and uploading the results of samples received from Kolkata as those from Kallakurichi.
On Friday, Director of Public Health T.S. Selvavinayagam issued an order cancelling the permission granted to Medall Laboratory to test RT-PCR samples with immediate effect. A public health notice has been served on the laboratory under sections of the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939.
The DPH said on analysing the ICMR portal pertaining to entry of COVID-19 tested samples, a number of issues were identified in the laboratory — the results of RT-PCR samples for testing received from Kolkata were uploaded as samples from Kallakurichi, and around 4,000 samples that were found negative for COVID-19 were uploaded as positive on the ICMR…