While the government had faced a lot of flak for allowing Kumbh Mela early this year when the country was struggling with the second Covid wave, new allegation of untrained students being given the responsibility of conducting Covid test during the event is likely to call for more criticism.
Around 34 students from a PM Skill Development Centre were assigned the task of conducting Covid tests during the Kumbh Mela. These students have now claimed that they did not get any medical training to conduct the tests, and many of them did not even know how to collect swab samples, The Times of India report said quoting SIT officer Rajesh Sah. The students were placed in Haryana-based Delpha labs to conduct the tests.
The report also said that around one lakh fake Covid tests were conducted during the event and the officer alleged that while the students conducted "only a handful" of tests, the number of tests recorded against each student was "highly exaggerated".
Just a few weeks ago, the director of Delphia labs was sent to police custody for allegedly uploading forged test results on the ICMR portal.
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