The Bengal government said on Saturday that the state was en route to “almost optimal level of testing”, with over 400 tests daily for a couple of days now — the total on Saturday stood at 4,630 — from eight laboratories approved by the Centre, and that substantial capacity augmentation was round the corner.

“According to my evaluation, we are headed for optimal level of testing,” Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said at a time the Opposition has been alleging “under-testing to present a better picture”.

The number of samples the state tested over the past seven days, according to the health department’s data, was 2,344, with 200-plus a day between Sunday and Tuesday, 300-plus on Wednesday and Thursday, and 400-plus on Friday and Saturday.

“Don’t get panicked, don’t create panic that we are under-prepared or are not doing something we should do. Please don’t hold on to this notion. We have been doing everything possible,” Sinha said.

The chief secretary —while firmly refusing to respond to anything political — mounted a clinical counter-offensive on Saturday with numbers and clarity.

“We have no intention of hiding anything from anybody. In fact, we want everybody to know the right things because that will make our work easier,” said Sinha.

He said Bengal’s ratio of Covid-19-positive cases to tests conducted was roughly 10 per cent now (the central NIE has put this figure at 6.8 per cent), unchanged from the beginning of the pandemic.

“For instance, we identified 580 (suspected) patients in Howrah and 62 tested positive — around 10 per cent. A similar rate held for other districts also,” he said.

Sinha said testing was being carried out at NICED, SSKM, Midnapore Medical College and Hospital, North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, School of Tropical Medicine, Apollo Hospital, Tata Medical Centre and Dr Lal’s Pathlab, the only eight approved in the state by the Centre’s Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

“With another one in Malda approved, which will start functioning from tomorrow (Sunday), with a capacity of 50 tests daily, we will have more tests daily,” Sinha said.

He said the state was also awaiting approval from the ICMR for Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital, R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Burdwan Medical College and Hospital and Bankura Medical College and Hospital.

“As I have said time and again, we have been awaiting approvals from the Centre for more and more testing labs. I can assure you we are getting cooperation from everybody,” Sinha said.

“But there are certain protocols --- it’s very complicated. Microbiological tests are not routine pathological tests, je dhorlam ar kortey shuru korey dilam (that we start testing just like that),” he added.

Despite that, Sinha said the state was trying to ensure increased testing from the existing labs.

“I’m saying that despite this we are making preparations. I have issued instructions that, wherever possible, work in the labs should happen in double shifts now. If we can do that, we can double the number of tests. It’s a possibility,” he said.

“But there are some logistical problems. It’s not as though I, as the chief secretary, would order them and they would start doing it --- that’s not going to happen. But we are doing whatever is possible,” he added.

Sinha said efforts were under way to reduce the time taken for each test, besides increasing the daily test count.

“We have regularly been liaising with every district. With some districts, samples are coming from far away, that’s taking time. That will reduce as soon as we get approval for, for instance, Durgapur or Burdwan,” he said.

“Then the testing numbers will increase and the time taken for each test will also fall. If the time is reduced, then if the patient tests positive I can immediately send them to a Covid-19 hospital. If it’s negative, then other treatment would be arranged faster…. It will help a great deal when the time is reduced.”

Sinha said testing was meaningless without an effective back-up strategy. “Testing, however, has no meaning if not backed up by a strategy of containment, segregation and isolation,” he said.

The chief secretary underscored the infrastructure the state had readied.

“As of today, we have 1,500 ventilators in the state. Only 10 of them have been used so far,” he said. “There are 7,969 beds in 66 hospitals dedicated to the pandemic. Of them, 178 are occupied. We are fully prepared,” he added.

Sinha said the state’s 582 quarantine centres – besides the home quarantine arrangements – were handling thousands of people.

“Let me tell you, there is no technology that we have not been using to track and monitor the tens of thousands on quarantine,” he said.

“Bengal does not face the problem of having more patients than our arrangements and infrastructure can handle.”