MARGAO: Though the State government issued orders earlier this month capping the charges for COVID testing, except for a few, several private laboratories in the State are still charging higher rates.
Aggrieved locals have sought relief from this and have questioned as to why the government authorities are ignoring these developments even though they are happening publicly and the high rates can be confirmed on a phone call.
Locals, especially the working class, have complained that they need a negative certificate to return to work if they had tested positive earlier and added that the high rates are burning a hole in their pockets.
“It is not just required if we were positive but to confirm that now we have recovered from COVID. It also happens if we fall sick and are asked to do a COVID test before returning to work. I work in the hospitality sector and my colleagues and I have done more than one test since January. We have paid Rs 1,500 for each test,” said Elvino Noronha from Velim.
It may be recalled that Health Minister Vishwajit Rane had put the onus on the District Magistrate concerned to take action under the Disaster Management Act.
“We have tried contacting the government departments but they don’t seem to have taken any action and appear to be caught up with election work. Our family members’ altogether had to shell out Rs 12,000 as each member had to do two tests, one to confirm that we were positive and the second to confirm that we were negative. We recovered from COVID quickly but did not expect that the testing part alone would be so costly,” said Chetan Naik from Margao.
There have been concerns raised about the high rates at private hospitals for admitting COVID patients, locals said the district administration should be looking into such issues, especially testing since the government had already issued an order to cap the rates.
Interestingly, some laboratories claimed they did not receive the notice although the government officials stated that it’s a public notice and applies to all private laboratories. Government officials said concerned citizens can send in their written complaints to the District Collector’s office.
“In our condition, we rather look for options to get tested quickly than wait for the authorities to register our complaint and come to the lab. But we don’t have much of a choice as most are charging high rates. If you test at a government centre, it sometimes takes days for you to get to know your result,” complained an annoyed citizen.
