The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Monday issued a show-cause notice to some private labs in the city for not updating the Covid-19 RT-PCR test results on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal within 24 hours after the tests were done.
Besides the notice, the labs were also sealed for not complying with the state government's order
Official communication from the BBMP revealed that Medall Laboratory, Aarthi Scans & Labs, RV Metropolis Laboratory in the west zone and BGS Global Hospital in Rajarajeshwari Nagar zone have been served with notice, enforcing immediate suspension of their KPME registration under Section 4 of the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020. The labs have been given 48 hours to reply to the show-cause notice.
The notice, a copy of which is accessed by DH, read, "There have been several complaints from the public that your lab is providing reports to patients without reporting the results to the ICMR database, disregarding the ICMR laid guidelines." Further, the BBMP has referred the issue to the ICMR for revoking the approval provided to these labs for Covid-19 testing.
On April 21, the Health Department had ordered all the testing labs to provide the RT-PCR test results to the citizens within 24 hours and upload the same on the ICMR portal.