by SANATH NANAYAKKARE

Sasindu Madhushanka, a 33-year-old merchant navy officer working on ocean-going vessels (OGV) was about to rejoin his ship on August 30 in Savannah, USA, after a short vacation in Sri Lanka.

As a PCR test is now required for cross border travel and joining ships in foreign ports, he got a test done at Lanka Hospitals on Aug. 29 at 8:26 am.

The result came that evening indicating COVID positive bringing his travel plans to a halt.

He informed his agent of his predicament and his inability to join the ship.

However, since he hadn’t felt any common or less common symptoms, he doubted the results and got a second test the same day at Asiri Central Hospital around 8:30 pm, just 12 hours after the first sample was taken at Lanka Hospitals.

Surprisingly, its result came the following day as ‘RNA NOT DETECTED’. He took a third test at Nawaloka Hospital on the advice of his agent, Manaco Marine Pvt. Ltd, Colombo 04, observing social distancing rules in the interim, and that too was negative.

“When one carefully reviews the documents I have in my possession of the three PCR tests taken at the three leading private hospitals in Sri Lanka within a matter of three days, one can easily see that an irresponsible and inaccurate PCR result was issued by the Lanka Hospitals Laboratory.

“Such incidents are totally unacceptable. Due to this mishap, I wasn’t able to join my ship and I remain unemployed at least for the time being. I am not sure when another vacancy would occur on a vessel and I would be called in.

“When I stay ashore without employment, I lose my total earnings of US$ 4,333 per month. Now I am awaiting further notice from my employer Reederei Nord GMBH, Hamburg, Germany as a consequence of this wrong or false PCR test result.

“This matter needs urgent attention as this is not the only case where such wrong results had been issued by this hospital. Two other crew members I know suffered the same experience.

“I urge the authorities to ensure that this won’t happen especially to people going abroad bringing in much sought after foreign currency. There’s a lot of competition from skilled personnel in other Asian countries for these jobs,” Sasindu said.

When The Sunday Island contacted Lanka Hospitals Laboratory, an officer there said that Sasindu could have had Covid-19 and had just recovered at the time, so his borderline result might have indicated him as Coronavirus positive. A borderline result might have indicated a prior infection of the virus too,” he explained.

At our request, this laboratory officer made a few attempts to put us through to the person in-charge of the lab. But this person was said to be ‘very busy’ and didn’t call us to give us a more detailed answer as promised.

The matter has been brought to the attention of the Director General of Health Services with all supporting documents.

The complaint stressed the consequences of issuing inaccurate PCR test results to those working overseas.