Janakpur State lab for COVID-19 test faces closure

Kathmandu - The coronavirus test from the PCR machine set up at State Public Health Laboratory of Janakpur has been stopped from Friday. The machine was setup on April 3.

The PCR machine had tested negative for COVID-19 during the checkup of a 14-year-old boy from Sarlahi district. However, he was tested positive for COVID-19 after the test of his swabs at the National Public Health Laboratory in Kathmandu.

The test in the PCR machine was stopped following the question on credibility/quality of the machine. In-charge of laboratory Rambinaya Sah said that doubt surfaced on the function of the machine following the results of Sarhali youth.

“So, we decided not to conduct the coronavirus test from today,” he added. So far, tests of 100 plus people were carried out and all of them tested negative for coronavirus.

The youth from Dhankaul rural municipality-5 of Sarlahi, who had arrived home from India, was tested positive for coronavirus in the test conducted from the machine here and was discharged from the hospital earlier.