IMCT writes to West Bengal CS; says 'need more transparency' in COVID-19 figures

The West Bengal government needs to be "transparent and consistent" in reporting COVID-19 figures, the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) said in a letter to State Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha on Monday, pointing tat it has found no evidence to back the government's claim of having surveyed 50 lakh people in four districts.

According to the State health department, over 6 lakh people were surveyed in containment areas falling in four districts including Purba Midnapur (1,50,447 people), North 24 Parganas (1,77, 654), Howrah (1,76, 960) and KMC (1,31,460) by around 1500 teams.

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Asks for evidence

"While the State government has claimed a very high level of daily surveillance of individuals in containment zones, no database was shown or results made available. During the stay of the committee itself, over 50 lakh persons would have been surveyed in the four districts. Collating and evaluating a database of this magnitude requires very robust systems to be in place. However, no such evidence was available during our stay or field visits," stated the letter written by IMCT head Apurva Chandra, Additional Secretary with the Centre.

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Discrepancy in numbers

Last month, the Ministry of Home Affairs had constituted IMCTs to visit coronavirus hotspots for assessment, issue directions to combat the spread of the virus in those areas and submit a report to the Centre. The TMC government has remained at odds with the team since. The IMCT highlighted a discrepancy in the number of COVID-19 cases reported by West Bengal in its medical bulletins and its communications with the Centre.

"The bulletin of April 30 showed active COVID cases as 572, discharged after treatment 139 and expired due to COVID 33 making a total of 744. In a communication to the Union Secretary (Health & Family Welfare) from the Principal Secretary (Health) on the same day the total number of cases was indicated to be 931 leading to a discrepancy of 187 cases," the letter said.

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Testing rate improved

In addition, the State government admitted on April 30 that 72 COVID-19 patients have died but classified them as death due to co-morbidities (pre-existing illness). On the other hand, IMCT commended the efforts made by the State Health Department in increasing the testing rate, which was languishing at around 400 per day till April 20, to 2,410 per day on May 2.

However, the IMCT chief accused the Bengal government of taking "an antagonistic view to the IMCT and has not supported the IMCT in the performance of its duties" during its stay in the state.

(With ANI inputs)

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