Police within the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand has registered a case against three private labs for filing fake Covid reports. Media reports say fake names, mobile numbers, and addresses were employed in quite 100,000 tests during the Kumbh festival in April. The private labs were hired by the state to screen visitors for Covid. Uttarakhand was criticized for holding the festival, which attracted several people, during the pandemic. Reports from different states suggested that those that returned from the festival ended up infecting an outsized number of individuals. Unmasked crowds thronged the Kumbh festival in April as several Indian cities grappled with a severe shortage of oxygen and hospital beds. At the time, officials said that each visitor was being screened for Covid. Private labs, based in Haryana and Delhi, were hired to conduct a majority of the tests. But media reports last week alleged that these labs faked Covid reports fulfilling their daily testing quota. The same phone numbers and addresses were utilized in many Covid reports. “Orders are issued to file a case against labs from Delhi and Haryana, which conducted testing at five places in Haridwar during Kumbh Mela,” Subodh Uniyal, Uttarakhand government spokesperson, told ANI wire service. The Kumbh Mela is that the biggest Hindu festival – it draws people from all parts of India and also the world. But experts had warned in March that the festival should be canceled due to an impending second wave. But the govt. decided to travel ahead, allowing people to go from across the country. Reports of pretending Covid tests have also emerged from the northern state of Bihar where some primary healthcare centers are accused of fudging data.
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