The health authorities in Satkhira district decided to keep the RT-PCR lab in Satkhira Medical College sealed for two more days on Thursday fearing coronavirus spread from it.
Assistant director of Khulna health department Dr Murshid said the lab was sealed off for three days from Tuesday fearing the virus may spread from it.
On Monday the lab authority suspected a spread as all the samples tested positive for Covid-19 that day.
Read: Covid in Bangladesh: Daily toll remains above 200; 15,271 more infected
Later they shut off the lab immediately after samples collected from the wall of the lab also came out positive.
Civil Surgeon of Satkhira, Husain Shafayat said the lab is being sterilized currently.
“On Saturday samples from the lab will be tested again. If it comes out Covid positive again the suspension will be extended for more two days,” he said.
Read: 30 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine to reach Dhaka Thursday night, Friday
For the last two months for Satkhira, Magura, Jashore and Narail district this RT-PCR lab was only hope for testing Covid samples. Every day samples were being tested twice more than its capacity of testing 94 samples.
Due to the lab being shut, testing of more than 500 samples kept in the refrigerator of the lab became uncertain.
As the Khulna RT-PCR lab refused to take the samples they will now be sent to Dhaka labs for testing, said the civil surgeon.