West Bengal: Mamata Govt Not Sending Enough Samples To Test, Says ICMR’s Nodal COVID-19 Lab Director

In a serious development, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)'s nodal testing facility in Kolkata has claimed that the West Bengal Government is not sending it enough samples for COVID-19 testing, reports India Today.

Serving as ICMR's nodal testing facility in Kolkata, the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) has shared that last week, it received lesser than 20 samples per day. The matter was made public by Director of NICED, Dr Shanta Dutta.

Dr Dutta added, "Number of samples being sent is determined by the State Government, so if they send more samples, we are able to test more. I think sample collection has not been as per the recommendation. So, the number of tests being done in Bengal is also less."

Furthermore, responding to Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee's complaint about lack of testing kits in the State, Dr Dutta shared that NICED has received a total of 42,500 testing kits so far, of which 27,000 excess kits remain in NICED's stock, while many kits have also been dispatched to State of Odisha and Port Blair.

Dr Dutta also revealed that NICED has given 7,500 testing kits to the State Government so far, while the State Government had only conducted a total of 2,523 tests till 12 April.