Around 900+ persons have come back to Belagavi in the past 20-25 days from various parts of the country and all of them have been Institutional quarantined in Belagavi and other taluka Places and even in self-paid hotels.
Around April end the ICMR COVID-19 testing lab was inaugurated with a notion that with the opening of the lab locally the swab results would be faster.
But now it seems the swab results are taking anything between 4-6 days to arrive.
Many in the Institutional quarantine have been speaking to the authorities but as the results have not come they cannot be released.
In many cases swab tests were taken 4-5 days ago but they haven’t received their results and hence have to continue their paid quarantine.
On Tuesday in a hotel, the inmates tried to go away as they said their money is over and they can’t pay any more, but their results had not come. The police somehow intervened and managed to convince the people.
Around 250-270 results are coming daily in the past couple of days.
We also got to know that all the labs are now over burdened for tests and hence the delay is increasing.
Sources also said that there was a lack of understanding of the SOP and its implementation locally. As per the SOP swabs must have been taken on the 12th day but for many they were taken on the 14th and then they have to wait for 4-5 days for the results to arrive. This irked many as they thought they would be let home on the 15th day but they had to actually spend 18-20 days in quarantine.
Some People have already spent 14 days but their reports are awaited and hence they are not released. During 14 day SOP rule, pregnant women and others were exempted and were to be tested on arrival but here they were tested on 8th to 10th day.
Now according to the new SOP, it is 7 days and swabs to be taken on 5th to 7th day. They purposely they take on 7th day and reports take 3 to 4 days. Then again they affix 7 days home quarantine. They are deliberately not testing on the ground that ICMR capacity is less the quarantined people said.
