If TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s claims are to be believed, then 21,004 people tested positive out of 18,589 samples taken on 12 January.
New Delhi: A mismatch of numbers between the official health document and claims by a ruling party MP pertaining to corona tests conducted in West Bengal, both released on the same date, has raised serious concerns among the health experts.
The data on Covid-19 shared by the State’s Health Ministry on 12 January 2022 showed that the total number of samples tested in the State was 71,792 on that day. Meanwhile, the data shared by Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP from Diamond Harbour and nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on his Twitter handle the same day showed that 53,203 samples were tested in his parliamentary constituency alone that day.
In his post, Abhishek also shared that out of the total 53,203 samples, 1,151 people tested positive for coronavirus. He went on to claim that the test positivity ratio of Diamond Harbour segment (2.6%) was the lowest in the State that week.
His tweet read: “Delighted to share that we have been able to pay appropriate tributes to Swamiji by conducting MORE THAN 50 THOUSAND #COVID19 TESTS in Diamond Harbour PC, in a SINGLE DAY. Additionally, in 7 days the positivity rate is the LOWEST among all LS constituencies in Bengal.”
It means, with the Health department bulletin showing that a total of 71,792 tests were conducted across Bengal on 12 January, only a meagre 18,589 tests were conducted in rest of the State.
The bulletin further said that the number of people tested positive for Covid-19 across the State was 22,155, showing the State’s positivity ratio to be 30.86%. That leaves 21,004 people to have contracted the virus in the rest of the State, if Abhishek’s claims are to be taken into consideration.
That brings us to the conclusion that out of the total of 18,589 samples tested in the rest of Bengal, 21,004 people tested positive for the virus on 12 January. This takes the positivity ratio of Bengal on that day to be more than 100 percent!
To this, the health experts have raised concerns saying that it is either the Health department that has not updated the data into their bulletin for the tests conducted at the Diamond Harbour segment or that the State recorded alarming levels of positivity on that day.
It is pertinent to mention that the Health department’s bulletin for the days preceding and proceeding 12 January reported the total test figures to be somewhere between 50,000 to 74,000 tests.
The Sunday Guardian has sent an email to MP Banerjee as well as the Health Secretary of West Bengal seeking a clarification from both on the data, but it has not received any reply from either of the concerned persons till the time of going to the press.