Two senior managers of a South African pharmaceutical company and many junior employees of a diagnostic laboratory were arrested for assisting and providing a “false” negative RT-PCR test report that helped India’s first Omicron patient sneak away last month Out of the country.
The Omicron patient, a South African national, tested positive after arriving in Bangalore on November 20 and was quarantined for 14 days in a star hotel in Vasanthnagar.
But only four days later, he issued a negative Covid-19 test report, which allowed him not only to leave the hotel, but also to fly out of India on November 27. All this happened, although the genome sequencing results of his swab samples were still awaiting. The results finally appeared on December 2, making him the first Omicron patient in India. It turned out that the negative RT-PCR test report submitted by foreigners was false, so the authorities were placed under the scanner.
Also read: The third Omicron Covid-19 infection in Karnataka: South African returnees test positive
The state government announced an investigation into how the report was generated.
On Sunday night, the High Grounds police arrested four people-Yogeshwar Mohan Persad Dokie aka Ranesh Dokie, 54 years old, Vice President of Quality Control of Adcock Ingram Ltd; Ravindranath, 36 years old, Quality Control Manager of Adcock Ingram Ltd; Manoj Kumar KC, 24 Years old, junior executive trustee and financial officer of Syngene International Co., Ltd. laboratory, and 25-year-old Prashanth M, registered supervisor of the same laboratory.
The South African, one of the directors of this pharmaceutical company, was also booked. FIR also listed the management of the hotel where he stayed. The police also asked some hotel staff about how to allow South Africans to leave without notifying the authorities. A senior police officer said that "necessary action" will be taken in this case.
Also read: Omicron poses a "very high" global risk, but data on severity is limited: WHO
The police said that Dokie and Ravindranath had "seduce" laboratory employees Kumar and Prashanth, promising to provide a high-paying job at a pharmaceutical company in exchange for a negative RT-PCR report.
At the same time, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) stated that it will issue a notice to the Syngene laboratory for an explanation before taking any action.
"We will get the details of the case from the police soon. We must also give the laboratory an opportunity to explain ourselves, so we will issue a notice seeking an explanation to it. Based on the response, we will take appropriate action, which may Including its blacklisting," said Dr. KV Trilok Chandra, Special Commissioner (Health) of BBMP.
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