Strange things have been happening in West Bengal, and adding to the suspicions of a possible Coronavirus cover-up, the Mamata Banerjee government revised the death toll three times on Friday hours after the Centre wrote to the state’s Chief Secretary asking for case records of all Coronavirus-related fatalities.
The West Bengal government has finally revealed the death of 57 COVID-19 patients on Friday, up from 15 on Thursday. But the West Bengal government maintains that out of the 57 deaths, 39 are attributed to “comorbid” conditions.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha has said that the committee of experts in West Bengal which decides if a person has died of COVID-19 or “co-morbidities” had “evaluated” 57 deaths thus far.
It seems that there could be cases in West Bengal which have not yet been “evaluated”, which paints a rather suspicious picture of how things might be getting covered up in the state.
From the very beginning, the Mamata Banerjee government has been facing severe criticism over allegations of hushing up confirmed Coronavirus cases and deaths in the state.
The first indications of Coronavirus deaths being downplayed came when the body of a man was buried by people wearing Personal Protection Equipment that had led to clashes between civilians and police.
The death certificate of the deceased apparently mentioned cardiac arrest as the cause of his death.
The five-member Expert Committee headed by former Health Services Director B.R. Satpathy, who is considered close to the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, that decides whether a death has been caused by the Wuhan virus, has also been a huge controversy in the state.
COVID-19 is known to accelerate death in people with co-morbidities which is why every Coronavirus-infected death is attributed to the novel infection across the world, but in West Bengal, the Committee of Experts, not the treating doctor decides if one infected with the deadly virus has died out of virus or “co-morbidities”.
To make matters worse, the Mamata Banerjee government is accused of not sending enough samples for testing which might be seriously underestimating the severity of the Pandemic in West Bengal.
Dr Shanta Dutta, Director, ICMR-NICED recently said, “There is a big drop last week we didn’t even have 20 samples per day. 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 number (of) tests being done in Bengal is also less.”
The performance of the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government in tackling the Pandemic also remains below par. A couple of weeks ago it was admonished by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs over dilution of lockdown, noting, “no regulation in vegetable, fish and mutton markets where people have been thronging in complete violation of social distancing“.
Moreover, there were also visuals of a Mosque in Murshidabad where hundreds had gathered for Namaz. The police could be seen trying to disperse the crowd, which was rather nonchalant about the lockdown and the dangers that the Wuhan virus posed to their own lives.
Mamata Banerjee government also refuses the co-operate with the Centre, and when the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) visited the state recently, they were taken on a guided tour and the Central team wasn’t allowed to visit the COVID-19 high-risk zones.
Mamata Banerjee government is still not cooperating with the IMCT, which has now claimed that the state police has not been cooperating in providing security to the team.
It has reportedly written to West Bengal Chief Security that if West Bengal Police doesn’t cooperate, can the BSF take care of security arrangements?
Why should the West Bengal government and police refuse to make necessary arrangements for the IMCT, unless it wants to hide things? Clearly, the manner in which things have planned out in West Bengal, the Pandemic could be far severe then what the numbers show.