Private agency faked 1 lakh Covid-19 tests during Kumbh Mela: Report

Payment to all labs which had been assigned the responsibility of conducting tests has been withheld

Days after a probe was ordered by the Haridwar district administration into alleged fake Covid tests during the Kumbh Mela, reports have surfaced that over 1 lakh tests were forged by a private agency.

One phone number was used to register over 50 people, while one antigen kit was allegedly used to test 700 samples, according to a report by the Times of India.

“Addresses and names were fictional. Almost 530 samples were taken from ‘House Number 5’ in Haridwar. Is it possible for a house to have over 500 residents? Bizarre addresses have been given — House number 56 Aligarh, House number 76 Mumbai,” an official who is part of the investigation told the publication.

The official also said, “Phone numbers were fake too. People in Kanpur, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and 18 other locations shared the same phone number.”

One of the world’s largest religious gatherings, the Kumbh was held in the state from April 1 to 30, and the notified Kumbh area covered various places in Haridwar, Dehradun and Tehri districts.

Read | Data proves calling Kumbh a Covid-19 super-spreader unfair: Mela security in-charge

A committee headed by Chief Development Officer Saurabh Gaharwar has been constituted to look into the allegations and submit a report within 15 days, Haridwar District Magistrate C Ravishankar said on Saturday.

Payment to all labs which had been assigned the responsibility of conducting tests -- RT-PCR and rapid antigen -- during the Kumbh has been withheld for the time being due to the ongoing investigation, he said.

Preliminary investigations into the alleged irregularities had been conducted by Chief Controlling Officer of Covid Cases Abhishek Tripathi, who recommended a detailed probe into the matter.

“The agency was supposed to submit the samples to two private labs. The labs are also under investigation,” Kumbh Mela health officer Dr Arjun Singh Sengar told the daily. According to health secretary Amit Negi, the investigation report has been forwarded to the Haridwar DM. “Several irregularities have been found. We will take action after receiving a detailed report from the DM in 15 days,” said Negi.

The 200 sample collectors employed by the agency turned out to be students and data entry operators in Rajasthan, who had never been to Haridwar. “A sample collector has to be physically present to collect samples. When we contacted the sample collectors registered with the agency, we found 50% of them were residents of Rajasthan, many were students or data entry operators,” said an official.

“One sample collector was someone enrolled in a skill development training programme at a government authorised centre in Hanumangarh. Upon inquiry, he told us that he had never been to Kumbh. He said he had been given the data by his instructor who had asked him to upload it as part of his training,” according to the investigation report.

The labs apparently faked the tests to meet the daily testing quota of 50,000 tests set by the Uttarakhand High Court during the Kumbh, sources said.

Twenty-two private labs had been hired for the purpose by the district health department to conduct testing during the festival.

When contacted Haridwar's Chief Medical Officer, S K Jha, said, "Kumbh area extends up to Rishikesh. Until the probe ordered by the district administration is complete, it is difficult to say at what level the alleged irregularities were committed."

(With agency inputs)

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