Wife of Patiala Man Who Died in October of Covid Receives SMS: 'Sample Collected For Test'
19-December-2020

Reports of RT-PCR tests have often come under scrutiny for several glaring glitches. Amid a raging pandemic, report for the coronavirus tests across the country have often been found laden with issues ranging from incorrect reports to false positives to reports getting exchanged. A woman from Patiala, however had the most harrowing time ever when she got the most shocking news of her life- a swab test report of her husband that came negative. But the biggest catch here was- her husband had already passed away over a month ago after he had tested 'positive' for coronavirus back then, reported Indian Express.

Patiala's Saleem Khan had passed away on October 31 at the Mission Hospital at Ambala after suffering complications due to coronavirus.

This is how Patiala's Sonia, widow of Saleem Khan recounted her renewed ordeal. Khan reportedly told that her husband, who was an employee at a private factory, had shown symptoms of coronavirus back in October whereupon he tested for Covid-19 and the swabs were take from him in October 14. He was being treated at the Rajpura Government Hospital first and later at Mission Hospital at Ambala where he then succumbed to coronavirus. That was then, but Sonia was yet to face another harrowing and inexplicable situation.

On December 2, she received an SMS on her late husband's phone from �myGOV�: �Rapid Antigen sample collected for Saleem Khan (Id:03041252464) SRFID 0304100252813 on Dec 2, 2020, 10:14 AM� You are advised to isolate yourself till the sample is tested and test report is available�.

The SMS said the samples were being tested at a Patiala laboratory.

After 6 hours of confusion, Sonia received yet another text message from �PBGOVT� which said: �Rapid Antigen sample taken for Saleem Khan, has come Negative�, Express reported. .

At a loss to comprehend the shocking events that unfolded, Sonia has been seeking answers. The family has also reportedly taken Khan's death certificate from Grama Panchayat, Ambala.

Further digging into these messages resulted in some shocking findings. Sonia, who had shared the baffling messages with her relatives, learnt that the address of the patient in the SMS was mentioned as Kalo Majra Niamatpur, which turned out to be Khan's village. Kalo Majra and Niamatpur are reportedly separate and adjacent villages in Patiala, with Khan hailing from the latter while Kalo Majra's health centre caters to over a 100 villages. The Express report also said that such SMSs are being sent to many people, irrespective of whether they are sending swabs to test or not to inflate the number of Covid tests on records.

Several discrepancies have been noted in RT-PCR tests being conducted at private labs over the past months. A private lab in Kerala was recently in news for allegedly cheated a large number of people, mostly those travelling to the Middle East and other countries, by issuing 'fake' COVID-19 negative certificates without testing their samples, and it's manager arrested on Tuesday, police said.

Earlier too, the licence of a private hospital in Meerut district has been suspended after a video showing its staff member providing fake coronavirus report in return for money, went viral on the social media.