Decoy test centres

Decoy test centres early on may have caused community spread

I want to hark back to a recent date when we were yet not visited by blue skies and hawks flying freely. The day was March 19, 2020. I had been feeling feverish for two days with a dryish cough that would not really turn into a proper cough. My first instinct was to ignore it. With the increasing reports of covid 19 cases worldwide and fear of infecting my aging parents I decided to own up to the problem and on the advice of trusted neighbor (also a leading microbiologist in India) I headed of to AIIMS, one of the two listed test centres in Delhi. Deciding on which test centre to go to was a task. AIIMS and NCDC were clearly listed on multiple websites and newspapers. However the microbiologist neighbour insisted that the two available test centres were RML and Safdarjung. To settle the issue he asked the question of a trusted virologist source. The answer came back RML and AIIMS. Since AIIMS showed on both lists that is where I decided to go. I was also advised to take my parents along to get them tested. I resisted this advise knowing how convoluted the processes at AIIMS are.

I had been trying to navigate the maze at AIIMS since January to learn what its like given all the brouhaha about free medical treatment in Delhi. I had learned that the absence of signs or pointers about department locations or the functioning of the system (if you can call it that) is made up for in a big way by the myriad security guards who know everything. All one has to do is ask them. My earlier visits had left me fairly confident about the accuracy of their information. If I had a doubt I asked a second guard and then a third if I needed a majority vote.

Thus on March 19 evening, I asked the security guard at the AIIMS entry to point me to the new Corona virus testing place. He immediately and confidently told me that AIIMS had no testing and that it was all done at Safdarjung (enter from gate 3 he said), which is a stones thrown from AIIMS. So to Safdarjung I went. Gate 3 was not visible. I took a chance and entered the hospital where ever I could. Suspecting that what was true of security guards at AIIMS would be true for Safdarjung, I asked them about Corona virus testing. From head shake to blank look to “I have not heard of that type of testing” were the responses. The security guards here were certainly not the of the same confident metal as AIIMS. Driving around blindly, I asked yet another guard. He replied “ oh yes, most people do not know about it, but this has started only today, go to blah”. So I headed to blah and joined a very short line of people all convinced or at least wanting to know if they were infected with the terrible virus. The guard here was much more haughty and would not answer questions but waved me to the back of the line. Within minutes I was seated about 4 feet away from two astronaut lookalikes. One leaned over and took my temperature and asked about my travels. That was it. I was then instructed to go to the Emergency ward room number 4, located another 300 metres away. I threaded my way through poverty and stench at the maternity ward, with large families camped on the veranda, deeply convinced of impending infection if I was not already down with one.

At the more modern looking Emergency building, I found myself at the end of a snaking line not sure if room 4 stood at the other end. Via the grapevine on the snaking line, I concluded I had landed at the right place. The woman in front of me and the one behind me were also there for covid19 testing. Innocent fools us! Once again the guard to the rescue. “Koi testing toosting nahi hota hai idhar. They are wasting your time. Phir aapko bhagaa dengey. Is say accha aap bhaag jao.” I bypassed glaring people to reach the head of the snake to ask a quick question “Are you testing for Covid19?” “Not here. Not here. Go ask in room 12” was the reply with a dismissive wave of the hand.

Relieved to be relieved of an increased probability of getting covid, I ran to room 12, with the other two women keeping up. Room 12 in Safdarjung seemed to be a sort of a PR room. We waited patiently for the doctor to finish delivering a cadaver (covid infected? ) to his family. His immediate words to us was “go to _____ and ask that lady there, but let me tell you there is no way that we have covid testing here”. So I went to ___ and was reassured that the only place providing testing was RML. I weighed the facts, RML was another 10 km away, and then probably another 50 panicked people in line before me. Suddenly it all seemed rather pointless and dinner at home seemed the surest option. I did notice a certain concern and restlessness in a lot of people at Safdarjung. The parking attendant for one wanted to know if I had been successful. I shared my experience with him in some detail, leaving him feeling sorry enough that he would not accept the parking charge.

The best thing I did that evening was to go home and scrub down with a hot shower. And then I realized I had to quarantine myself and my parents…. Just in case. By the time the lock-down happened our household was well into the rhythm of no help and no social interaction.

As I thought about the mis-information regarding tests, I realized that hundreds of us, people who suspected to have sars-cov2, had put ourselves at risk and possibly spread it around. Why would the government do such a thing. And why would they not list RML the real testing centre when they had taken pains to list AIIMS and NCDC. And then it hit me, RML is where many of the politicians go for treatment. Did they really secure their own testing set up at RML and the others were just decoys?

There is more. For a long time the central government clung to testing information like it did to cash some time back. THEIRS were the only “authorized” test centres. They finally relented and added a whole list of private labs and hospitals that were now “allowed” to share this privilege of testing. And a lot of well fed people I know applauded like we had landed on mars. I decided to call each “private” authorized testing centre. I only got to three on the list. Not Dang’s Lab, not Lal Path Labs and another whose name escapes me, admitted to being set up. This was well into the last week of March 2020. What does the centre think people going to do? jump the testing lines and take more than their fair share of tests? A full two weeks on and stinginess is still the hallmark of this covid19 season.