Key Highlights
- He had collected only four swab samples from the village, though the health department noted down the names of 15 others without even taking their samples
- Singh sent 20 testing kits without swab samples to the laboratory and most of them had been dipped in water
- Dhar District Collector Alok Kumar Singh said that a sub-divisional magistrate was sent to probe the matter when Tana villagers complained of having received fake messages
Indore: The worst nightmares of people seem to have unfortunately come true in a village in Madhya Pradesh after several people tested positive for Covid-19 even without giving their swab samples.
In what appears to be a horrendous scar on the veracity of testing facilities, people in Tana village of Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district tested positive for Covid-19 even without offering their swab or blood samples, officials said on Wednesday.
Guman Singh, a health department technician, decided to test the effectiveness of the laboratory where samples are sent for examination after he had heard several complaints of loopholes within the testing system.
However, he had collected only four swab samples from the village, though the health department noted down the names of 15 others without even taking their samples since many of them were not in the village at that time.
Singh admitted to have manipulated the samples and said that many villagers had been suspecting the accuracy of the tests.
So, he sent 20 testing kits without swab samples to the laboratory. “Most of them had just been dipped in plain water,” Guman Singh told a television channel, news agency IANS reported.
‘Blank samples, fake messages’
Block community mobiliser Bachhan Mujalda, whose services have been terminated along with Singh, reportedly sent the “blank samples” to the laboratory without even informing the villagers. The unsuspecting villagers then received messages that they tested positive, though they hadn’t even given their samples.
“I was in Bhopal when the samples were collected from the village. Only four samples were collected from the village. The health department team collected the names and other details of 15 other persons without taking their samples,” Kamal Mujalda, who had received the message about his sample being found positive, said.
Dhar District Collector Alok Kumar Singh said that a sub-divisional magistrate was sent to probe the matter when Tana villagers complained of having received fake messages.
“Initial investigation revealed the carelessness of a block community mobiliser (BCM) and technician in this work. Possibly, the samples collected from some other persons were mixed in the test kits sent on the names of persons, who did not give samples,” the District Collector said on Wednesday, according to the news agency.