IGMH lab team works 36 hours straight, clearing bulk of massive backlog

Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH)’s lab team worked for 36 hours straight, cutting down the massive backlog of untested samples from over 3,000 to 52.

Maldives has been experiencing a sharp surge in COVID-19 infections in recent weeks, leading to the accumulation of 3,714 untested samples by May 10. The samples were taken from across Maldives, and over 48 hours old.

Daily infection rates have surged above 1,000 over the last three days, since Maldives began testing the backlog samples.

In a press conference by Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) on Tuesday, President’s spokesperson Mabrook Azeez said the bulk of the backlog samples have now been cleared.

Mabrook said that since IGMH is the biggest COVID-19 testing facility in Maldives, it also had the biggest backlog of untested samples.

“A large part of that has been cleared. Samples over 48 hours have been reduced to 52,” he said.

Mabrook commended IGMH’s lab team for their hard work, noting that the team tested 5,084 samples over the last 36 hours, which included the backlog samples and the samples taken on Wednesday.

“The hard work by IGMH’s laboratory team to clear this backlog deserves commendation. I understand the effort they must have put in working overtime to get this done. I therefore thank IGMH’s laboratory team on behalf of all of us,” he said.