Mamata fudging Covid-19 data in Bengal (005) - says faulty Covid-19 testing kits from the center was the cause of low test figures

Since the IMCT’s arrival, West Bengal appears to be reporting more cases of Covid-19. 

For instance, according to the health bulletin issued 17 April, 2020 the total number of active cases was 162. On 20 April, the figure was 245, a rise just under than 100. Four days later, on 24 April, the state reported 385 active cases, an increase of 140. 

Testing has also picked up. While 4,212 samples had been tested by 17 April, the number was 5,469 by 20 April and 8,933 by 24 April. The average per-day testing figures have shot up to 943 from 240.

Addressing the media on Thursday, 2020-04-23  Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee weighed in on the discrepancy. She said the central government was either sending faulty kits or withdrawing the ones sent, adding that testing had picked up because the state was procuring kits on its own. 

The IMCT’s letters Friday also raise questions about the state’s testing and reporting patterns, besides some “infrastructural issues” at local hospitals.

However, the Trinamool Congress sought to defend its handling of the crisis. 

“The problem surfaced here as the Centre sent us all faulty kits. We could not conduct the required number of tests as we did not have kits,” Santanu Sen, a Trinamool Congress MP and former member of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said.  

Source: The Print, article by Ms Madhuparna Das. 

Mamata fudging Covid-19 data in Bengal (004) - Sudipta Mukherjee was declared dead b'cos of Hepatitis B instead of Coronavirus

The death figures in West Bengal have been called into question by a number of people from medical fraternity.
Many doctors are scared of identifying themselves in fear of retribution from state machinery but there are some like Dr. Pratim Sengupta (Nephrologist in Belle Vue Clinic) who have raised a stink. Corroborating the nephrologist’s charges, Dr Archana Majumdar has been quoted as saying in a Sunday Guardian report that the state is hiding the real figures of death. “Let me cite one example. It happened this week at one of the hospitals. A patient, named Sudipta Mukherjee, got admitted and eventually died around 10.04 hours. She was 43 years old and her body was sent out of the hospital as a Hepatitis B case.”

Source: FirstPost dated April 23, 2020.

Mamata fudging Covid-19 data in Bengal (003) - Dr. Shanta Dutta, Director, NICED revealed very few tests in Bengal

The chief of National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), nodal arm of ICMR in Beliaghata, Kolkata, has gone on record to say that Bengal government is not sending enough samples for testing.
Dr Shanta Dutta, Director, NICED, told media that flow of samples has not been “equal from the very beginning”. In an article published on 13 April, 2020, Dr Dutta was quoted, as saying to India Today.

Source: FirstPost dated April 23, 2020.