1 lakh fake Covid test during Haridwar Kumbh; Uttarakhand govt orders FIR against pvt labs

June 18: Uttarakhand government has ordered Haridwar district administration to file an FIR againt private labs accused of conducting as many as 1 lakh fake Covid-19 tests during the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. An official stated, “An order is issued to file a case against labs from Delhi and Haryana, which conducted testing at five places in Haridwar during the Kumbh Mela.”

Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said: “We got to know about an incident when a Punjab resident received a message that his COVID test had been conducted in Haridwar, while he was in Punjab. The information was passed onto the State government, which in a pro-active manner conducted an inquiry and about a week ago and directed senior officials in Haridwar to prepare a detailed report.’’

A private agency engaged by the Uttarakhand government to conduct COVID-19 tests during the Kumbh Mela issued at least 1 lakh fake reports, according to a detailed probe. The Kumbh, one of the world’s largest religious gatherings, was held in the state from 1 to 30 April. The grand religious congregation saw a gathering of lakhs of devotees amid the coronavirus pandemic. As many as 22 private labs and nine agencies were assigned the responsibility of conducting tests —RT-PCR and rapid antigen — during the festival by the district health department. The labs apparently issued fake reports to meet the daily testing quota of 50,000 tests set by the Uttarakhand High Court during the Kumbh.

As per reports, 1 kit was shown to have tested 700 samples and 1 phone number used to register 50 people.