Anxious enquiries seeking the COVID-19 testing facilities are flooding the private medical laboratories as the State is heading for a complete lockdown to curb the spread of the disease.
At the same time, there has been a steep decline in the number of footfalls in the leading diagnostic labs, which is attributed to the general fear that has gripped the society.
Travel curbs
The travel restrictions that are in place also deter people from venturing out for routine blood tests, say those at the private laboratories.
“On a daily average, most of the city units of the DDRC-SRL Diagnostic Laboratory Services receive anything between 25 to 30 calls seeking the COVID-19 testing facilities. The scare created by the pandemic must be prompting people with slight fever or cough to make calls to labs,” said K. Unnikrishnan, general manager (operations) of the group, which over 200 labs across the State.
“We pacify the panic-stricken callers and ask them to stay indoors for a couple of days and find out if the symptoms subside in the absence of definitive tests being accessible . We also ask them to approach a doctor rather than rushing to the laboratories. As of now, no private lab in the State has been permitted by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct the COVID-19 tests,” said Mr. Unnikrishnan.
“The branches of Hi-Tech Diagnostic Centre, Ernakulam too receive up to 60 calls a day seeking the COVID-19 test facilities,” said Suresh Varghese, director of the organisation.
Antibody-based tests
Ajith Joy, managing director, DDRC-SRL, suggested antibody-based tests for COVID-19, which is a faster method that should be used to screen masses. “Currently, ICMR has permitted only RT PCR-based tests,” he said.
At the same time, the major labs have witnessed a steep fall in the number of drop-in patients since the outbreak of the disease.
“Blood Routine tests have dropped by 50% at DDRC-SRL labs. Earlier, we used to do around 200 tests at each unit. It has now dropped below 100. Currently, we are witnessing a drop of around 70% in the number of patients reaching our facilities,” said Mr. Unnikrishnan.
“People are scared,” said Mr. Varghese, “to get out to the streets and get the tests done.”
The number of routine blood tests and the number of walk-in patients have dropped by 50%. Since the outbreak of the disease, a large number of patients must be postponing the regular lab checks as a precautionary measure, he said.
According to Kavitha Ravi, additional professor of the Department of Pathology, Government Medical College (GMC), Kalamassery, patients volunteer for Blood Routine and Platelet Count tests at private labs without consulting a doctor. “The behavioural pattern of the people might have taken a beat under the emerging health scenario,” she said.
“The labs of the GMC too witnessed a fall in the number of patients seeking blood and other diagnostic tests,” said G. Unnikrishnan, assistant professor, Department of Pathology, GMC, Kalamassery.
During the last one week, there was a 50% drop in the numbers, following the COVID-19 scare. Later, the hospital streamlined its facilities and reduced the out-patient consultation timings to two hours in the morning, which too reduced the load.
“After the hospital was dedicated exclusively for corona care, no other cases come to us,” Dr. Unnikrishnan said.
