The Coronavirus test conducted on Telugu Desam Party’s legislative council member G Deepak Reddy kicked up a political controversy in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday.
The doctors who conducted the Covid-19 tests on Deepak initially declared him as positive for the virus and referred him to official quarantine. However, he underwent repeated tests in Telangana which showed that he was negative.
This led to a political storm in the state with none other than TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu accusing the Jagan Mohan Reddy government of conducting false Covid-19 tests on the TDP leaders and sending them for official quarantine in order to settle political scores.
Naidu sought explanation from the ruling party leaders for the need to send the TDP MLC for quarantine even before he was confirmed positive for coronavirus. He accused the Jagan government of showing ''negligence'' and “cheap tactics.”
However, the Andhra medical and health department clarified that the accuracy in the RT-PCR tests conducted on any patient was only 67 per cent.
“Though there is 33 per cent chances of presence of virus, the test results would show negative. Only if the presence of virus is 100 per cent, it shows positive result,” the department said.
The department further said even during the recovery period, the patient might test negative.
“When Deepak Reddy tested positive initially, he must have had 100 per cent viral infection. When the second test proved negative, it means the viral infection might be less than 33 per cent,” it said.
It advised the political party leaders to make responsible statements before commenting on such technical issues.
