Srinagar: Reports of Covid-19 tests conducted at the virology lab of SKIMS Soura are getting delayed because there are just two data entry operators filing the reports in the hospital database.
Official sources told Kashmir Reader that two data entry operators work in the microbiology department of SKIMS for compiling the daily Covid-19 test reports, which delay the reporting despite the tests having been completed in the lab.
“The shortage of staff has piled up the test reports with their status as pending,” the official sources said.
As per official documents, the backlog of test reports for novel coronavirus has risen by more than 60 percent in just one week at the microbiology department of SKIMS. On June 24, the number of Covid-19 test reports pending till evening was 574 while it was 1,467 on July 1, which is 61 percent more.
Till date, 1,20,319 tests have been done at the institute.
Although officials attribute the pendency of test reports to rising cases of Covid-19, official sources say that shortage of data entry operators delay the reports even as lab technicians complete the testing on the same day.
An employee at SKIMS said that some test reports get delayed for nearly a week.
“We are forced to report samples collected from the airport before 12pm on the same day that the travellers arrive at the airport, while other samples are kept in the freezer,” said a doctor.
He said the department had been provided with 20 data entry operators, but only two have been kept for compiling Covid-19 emergency test reports while others have been posted for other official work.
Medical Superintendent of SKIMS, Dr Farooq A Jan, said that the staff had been distributed as per the workload and priority. Otherwise, the department had sufficient data entry operators, he said.
“We can’t post every operator for Covid reporting. Other work is also important. I will still see if more operators can be assigned Covid-19 entry jobs to expedite the work,” he said.

Manzoor ul-Hassan