Members of a family in Siliguri, which has alleged harassment after one of its members was tested positive for Covid-19 in tests conducted by a private laboratory, have said they now have a reason to smile.

A 30-year-old woman of Ward 43 in Siliguri in her 7th month of pregnancy had been visiting a private nursing home at Punjabi Para for her routine check-up, while the nursing home authorities there advised her to undergo Covid-19 tests “as a precautionary measure,” even though she did not have the slightest of Covid symptoms.

“We complied and to our horror, the report came positive. She had absolutely no symptoms, nor did anyone at home, including the many children in the family that we have. All my wife went to during the lockdown was the private hospital,” said the husband of the woman.

Suraksha Diagnostics Pvt Ltd, which tested the woman’s throat swab sample in its Newton branch in Kolkata, has now been temporarily closed after the state health department found anomalies in its Covid tests during an inspection.

The health department has also asked Suraksha Diagnostic’s Siliguri branch to halt sample collection and Covid tests. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had given its approval for Suraksha Diagnostics to carry out RTPCR Covid-19 tests in its Newton branch in Kolkata.

The Punjabi Para branch of the private lab in Siliguri had taken the swab samples from the pregnant woman on 26 June and sent them to the Newton branch for tests.

Soon after the private lab shared its report that showed the woman positive for Covid19, authorities took her to Dr Chhang’s (Covid) Hospital at Matigara in Siliguri in the evening of 27 June. She was discharged on 1 July, after hospital sources said she had tested negative twice. According to the sources, the woman’s swab was collected the day she was admitted on 27 June and that the report on 28 June showed her negative.

“Samples were again taken on 30 June, and the report on 1 July also showed her negative,” the source said.

“It is surprising that a woman who had tested positive on 27 June and taken to hospital the same day tested negative twice within a span of just four days after that. If it is a fact that they (private lab) have been forced to shut for violating the ICMR protocols, then there is valid ground for suspecting that the report (of the pregnant woman) may not have been correct,” an official said.

The woman’s family members alleged that the Suraksha report was false and that she had to face undue harassment, being dragged to the hospital during such pregnancy.

“It was one of the toughest times for us all at the family. My father could not sleep for two full nights and days. He collapsed after that and suffered fractures on his rib and is now undergoing treatment in another private hospital,” the woman’s husband said.

Darjeeling district Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr Pralay Acharya said the health department had issued an order to Suraksha Diagnostics in Siliguri to stop collecting samples and sending them for Covid tests to Kolkata.

“The health department has issued the order to the private centre to stop the testsas it flouted the ICMR guidelines. There was lack of skilled technician and molecular biologist,” Dr Acharya said here today.

Sources at the lab in Siliguri, however, claimed that they themselves halted the Covid tests temporarily because with the closure of the Kolkata based laboratory, which has been closed by the health department found anomalies during a visit yesterday.

A daily newspaper today quoted an official at the health department as saying that too many positive cases from the private laboratory had made them suspicious about the authenticity of the reports and that reports of a number of persons who tested positive for Covid-19 at the laboratory were found erroneous.

“We are happy that its over now and that the private lab has been caught, but we are also a bit worried as my sister-in-law may have contracted the infectin at the Covid hospital. We are taking extra precautions at home,” the brother-in-law of the woman said.

None of the government officials, who were requested to comment on the matter, responded to queries but forth by The Statesman.