Patna: The pressure of managing the Covid-19 pandemic in Bihar is showing on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. In a cabinet meeting via videoconferencing Saturday, the usually cool Nitish is reported to have lost his temper with Principal Secretary (Health) Uday Singh Kumawat, on the issue of the low number of tests being conducted in the state.
At the same time, the state’s Covid problem has been compounded by flooding in 10 districts.
“When Delhi can do 38,000 tests per day, why can’t Bihar?” the angry CM is said to have fumed, asking Kumawat to quit if he can’t take care of the health department.
Nitish is also reported to have said his good work of the last 14 years was being questioned because of Covid-19 situation, and state Health Minister Mangal Pandey only added to his anger by declaring in the meeting that Kumawat did not listen to him.
ThePrint spoke to two Bihar ministers who confirmed the incident but did not wish to be identified.
“If Kumawat has been posted to such a situation in May, replacing an efficient Sanjay Kumar, he himself is to blame,” remarked one minister.
Health Minister Pandey, meanwhile, refused to comment on the exchange at the cabinet meeting, but said the central government was sending 3 lakh rapid antigen test kits to Bihar.
“We will increase the number of tests soon,” he told ThePrint, adding that the kits will be sent to block-level hospitals and primary health centres. However, experts have expressed concern over high numbers of false negative results in rapid antigen tests.
ThePrint also approached Kumawat for a comment through phone calls, but they went unanswered.
Also read: Staff testing Covid-positive force Bihar private hospitals to shut doors on non-Covid patients
Patna High Court asks for detailed report
For the first time Friday, the Patna High Court has asked the state government specific questions. A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Sanjay Kumar asked the Bihar health department to give a report before 7 August, the next date of hearing.
This report, the court said, should include the population of Bihar, the total number of government and private test labs that are recognised and currently conducting Covid-19 tests, the number of tests conducted, the total number of notified dedicated Covid hospitals in the state, the number of isolation centres (along with details of housing capacity of the number of doctors and staff posted in Covid hospitals and centres), the number of ventilators and oxygen cylinders, the number of ambulances dedicated for transfer of Covid patients, and the methods used for disposal of dead bodies.
The court has also asked the health department to provide details of sample collection or mass testing, and even asked the government if the testing kits and apparatuses available are good enough to deal with a possible surge in infections.
The high court’s questions come at a time when Bihar and UP have been judged the worst states in terms of reporting Covid cases in a study conducted by Stanford University.
Nitish Kumar’s government has also been facing criticism for low testing, inadequate number of doctors (around 6,000 short of capacity), as well as doctors not turning up for duty.
Saturday, the state government dismissed eight doctors for not being present in their hospitals for a long period, and also announced that families of Covid fighters who die will either be given a government job or full salary till the employee’s due retirement date.
Low testing
The Government of India Saturday stated that 4.2 lakh tests were conducted in the previous 24 hours across the country. However, the testing figure for Bihar was 12,461, on a day when 2,800 fresh cases were reported from the state.
The population of Bihar is around 125 million or 12.5 crore, and the tests-per-million figure was 2,637 on 16 July, the lowest in the country.
Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav claimed Sunday that the figure had now touched around 3,500, which was still very low, and that only around 0.35 per cent of the state’s total population had been tested.
बिहार जैसे घनी आबादी वाले राज्य में अभी तक मात्र 0.35% लोगों की जाँच हुई है।प्रति 10 लाख मात्र 3508 लोगों की जाँच हो रही है जो देश में सबसे कम है।
140 दिनों में प्रतिदिन जाँच का औसत सिर्फ़ 3158 है।विगत 2 हफ़्तों से Antigen Tests को छोड़ दें तो आज भी बमुश्किल 3000 जाँच हो रही है।
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2020
He also pointed out the high positivity rate of 12.54 per cent in the month of July, saying it was the highest in the country for this month.
बिहार की जुलाई महीने में Positivity rate 12.54% है जो देश में सबसे ज्यादा है।
कोरोना से सिर्फ जुलाई महीने में अभी तक 25 दिनों में 159 लोगों की मौत हुई है। मतलब प्रतिदिन 6 लोगों की मौत हो रही। जो बिना जाँच और इलाज मर रहे है उनकी गिनती ही नहीं है। सरकार को अब तो गंभीर होना चाहिए।
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2020
The total number of tests conducted since 23 March, when the first Covid lab was established in Bihar, is 4,42,125. Nitish Kumar had said two weeks ago that testing capacity would be increased to 20,000 per day, but that hasn’t happened.
Also read: If India starts acting on the yearly floods in Bihar and Assam, that would be true nationalism
Hatha mahadev
If not Nitish is to blame the situation then whom ? To suppress numbers he removed an efficient and transparent Sanjay Kumar, so that upcoming election could be conducted. This anger is just a sign of a failed and furious CM , lacking command even on work of Health Department and that too in a pandemic !
He is still saying ‘others’ to conduct 20 thousands tests. It is like there are other more important things to attend rather than micro managing the situation. This anger of CM is futile and he himself to blame for everything that turned out to be bad.