'Infected' cop tests negative in second report

10 of constable's family members test positive, health team takes samples of contacts

HYDERABAD: A Central Intelligence Agency police constable who had earlier tested positive for coronavirus was cleared of the virus in a second report by Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Thursday. Ten of his family members had also tested positive for the contagious disease the previous day.

The two tests, the first by the Diagnostic and Research Laboratory of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) and the second by the AKUH laboratory, were carried out in a span of three days.



Sources at Liaquat University Hospital, where the policeman is admitted in the isolation ward, said that he would remain there until a third test is conducted, 14 days after the first report. "If he is negative [for the virus], then how were his family members infected?" an LUMHS official questioned.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, a police contingent was deployed in Khaskheli Mohalla in the Makki Shah area, as a health team collected samples from the people who had been in contact with the policeman and his affected family members.

Though there had initially been reports about the locality being sealed, Hyderabad deputy commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro denied this, telling The Express Tribune that the police had only limited residents' movement while the samples were being taken.

One of the policeman's family members said that they wanted the 10 affected relatives, admitted at Kohsar Government Hospital, to be tested through AKUH again as well.