Durban – An essential worker from Pietermaritzburg said 23 days after being tested for Covid-19, he had still not received his test results.
The man, who works with immunocompromised and disabled children, said after falling sick with a fever, sore throat and tiredness at the beginning of May, he went to the screening centre outside Northdale hospital.
He said after being screened, a nurse determined that he needed to be tested and a doctor swabbed his nose and throat.
“They took my ID number, they put the swab in a packet and they said that the tests would be available in five days because there was a backlog, which I thought was reasonable considering they are testing so many people,” he said.
Five days later, the man said he felt sicker and when he inquired about his results, he was told they had not returned but that if he felt sicker they would leave medication for him at the screening centre.
“I couldn’t eat, I was battling to breathe. My throat was so swollen, I still had a very bad fever and was still sleeping most of the day,” he said.
The man went back to the screening centre and, after he was re-examined, the medical staff offered to admit him because he was experiencing difficulty breathing. He said he decided to self isolate and, eight days later, there were still no test results
He phoned the coronavirus hotline and was advised by a clinician at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases that his test was at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital.
“I must have phoned about eight times over the past month and, as of Tuesday, it’s been 23 days since I did the test. I confirmed with them that the test had arrived at the hospital on May 5,” he said.
The man said the reason given to him for the delay was that they had run out of a viral agent needed to process the test. He said while it was possible that he did not have Covid-19, it was also possible that he did.
As an essential worker, the man said he had been in contact with people prior to falling sick. The concerned man said the people he was in contact with had the right to know whether they had been exposed to the virus.
“I think this is a failure from the state and I think it could potentially cause more of a problem when it comes to Covid-19,” he said.
DA KZN spokesperson on Health, Dr Rishigen Viranna said the party had been reliably informed, from concerned sources within the health system, that the delays at the hospital’s National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) had allegedly resulted in a backlog of more than 20000 tests, from across KwaZulu-Natal.
Viranna said the facility was the only accredited public sector testing site for Covid-19 in the province.
Viranna said these allegations supported reports from clinicians that there were hold-ups in the testing process. Public sector doctors also reported that Covid-19 test results took up to 14 days, he said.
“This means that there is a possibility of contacts still working in hospitals and clinics, treating patients and interacting with colleagues, as their ‘patient zero’ still awaits their test result.”
The NHLS said yesterday that it was experiencing challenges regarding the extraction and test kits as ordered supplies could not be delivered due to logistical challenges.
“As a result of the global shortage of extraction test kits, the supply of stock is sporadic for some of the key products. The NHLS has placed orders with the suppliers to meet our testing capacity of 36 000 tests per day.
"However, we are only receiving limited quantities when the suppliers have them available. The NHLS continues to engage with international suppliers to expedite the delivery of the test kits.”
It said on average it was conducting 60 000 tests per week with the available kits.