A private laboratory which has been under the Haryana Government's scanner for alleged discrepancies in Covid-19 test
results on Saturday asserted that it stands by its findings and is open to getting these samples re-tested at any Government lab.
The Haryana Government had on Monday ordered a probe after four samples reported positive for coronavirus by SRL Diagnostics tested negative in confirmation tests done at different Government labs in the State.
The State Government will give no samples for testing to the private lab, pending the outcome of the probe, Health Minister Anil Vij had said.
Gurgaon-based SRL Diagnostics on Saturday said it re-tested the samples, which were first tested on April 18, and the results again came back positive for coronavirus.
It said it conducted a re-test "using the RNA extracts from the same samples which are stored with the lab under the recommended guidelines by ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research)."
"The test results are out and once again read positive," said Dr. Anurag Bansal, technical head for north and east India and lab operations director for Gurgaon Clinical Reference Laboratory, SRL Ltd.
Bansal and Arindam Haldar, Chief Executive Officer of SRL Ltd., addressed the media through a video conference.
"We would like to reiterate our testing lab in Gurgaon is ICMR-approved and is also NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited.... And is run by highly professional, qualified and experienced doctors. With reference to Covid-19 testing, we are only using ICMR-approved kits and testing technique - RT PCR," Haldar said.
Bansal said it is critical to understand that there are multiple reasons which can influence a test result.
"When we got the notice from them (health department) stating that there is (a) discrepancy in these four results, we again ran these tests and again these came positive," Bansal said.