Amid the rising cases of Covid-19 and deaths in the region, the Darjeeling District Hospital today temporarily suspended the RT-PCR Covid tests. The hospital has cited backlog of tests at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) in Siliguri for the decision.

The hospital also said that it had been conducted the Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) “judiciously” in lack of testing kits. “As around 7,000 samples are awaiting tests at the NBMCH, we have stopped the RT-PCR tests in the hospital for the time being. As we also have limited RAT kits, we are using them to test only primary contacts of a Covid-positive patient and those who display symptoms of the disease,” Darjeeling Hospital’s District Medical Officer of Health Dr Subasish Chanda said today.

Sources at the Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) at the NBMCH in Siliguri confirmed the backlog for Darjeeling and said that they were overburdened with the number of samples they had been receiving every day. “A huge number of samples are coming in from Darjeeling district and there is immense pressure when it comes to clearing the tests here,” a source said.

The source, however, added that they had started clearing the backlog after three new technologists joined the lab. The source further said that six-seven more technologists were scheduled to join the VRDL team at the NBMCH in a couple of days. “If that happens, the VRDL should be able to start clearing the backlog from Monday,” the source said. It is learnt that the VRDL has been conducting 2500 tests a day presently.

Meanwhile, a 66-year-old woman, who had tested positive for Covid-19, died in the hospital last night, sources said. The death has taken the number of such deaths in Darjeeling Hills to four after the ‘second wave’ of the coronavirus hit the country. “Her oxygen level was less than 35 percent when she was brought to the hospital last night. She died soon after she was brought here,” Dr Chanda said.

According to Mr Chanda, it is very difficult to save patients whose oxygen levels run below the 45 percent mark. Among the four Covid patients who dies, one died in a private nursing home in Darjeeling and one in a hospital in Siliguri, sources have said. Meanwhile, given the increasing rate of new infections and deaths, long queues are seen in hospitals of people wanted themselves to be vaccinated against the virus.